By Ragan M. Conteh
The Speaker of Parliament, Dr Chernor Abass Bundu, has on Thursday 23 March 2023 announced at the plenary session that the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) may commit contempt of Parliament.
The Speaker said MP’s will all recall that some renovation works have been going on in Parliament; some have reached completion and others are still in progress. He said these works came about as a result of an EU grant of €27 million in 2016 to support the governance sector in Sierra Leone, and Parliament was allocated €3 million from this amount.
According to Speaker Bundu for this generous assistance, he wished to express thanks and appreciation to the European Union.
However, he said, the application of the €3 million to Parliament has been applied in ways that fell far short and certainly do not meet with Parliament’s expectations.
The Speaker said the contract for the renovation works was awarded by the EU Office in Freetown to UNOPS (United Nations Office for Project Services). He disclosed that evidently lacking the technical capacity to deliver on the contract, UNOPS subcontracted to a number of contractors.
Regrettably, he said some of the subcontractors have performed manifestly poorly and considerably below par, using materials and workmanship that are grossly substandard.
He revealed that as a result the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) authorised a Parliamentary Quality Assurance Committee to be constituted by the Clerk in July 2022. The speaker said this committee has completed its assignment and has produced an excellent report notwithstanding the lack of cooperation by the UNOPS, for which he took the opportunity to thank the Assurance Committee for a job well done.
Speaker Bundu said the report is going to be considered by the Parliamentary Service Commission.
He went further that without prejudice to the ultimate decision that the PSC will take on the report, he hastened to make it abundantly clear that unless immediate remedial measures are taken to ensure that this Parliament gets value for money through the rectification of the deficiencies and shortcomings in the works already done, Parliament shall all take a dim view of the UNOPS and its subcontractors to the extent of considering their poor performance as a contempt of Parliament as defined by the provisions of section 95 of the Constitution.
Dr Bundu also sounded a warning to UNOPS that this Parliament will not allow them to take refuge behind the shield of diplomatic immunity.
The speaker reiterated that once UNOPS would have descended from their exalted position as a diplomatic agent and come to the marketplace as a contractor, by that act alone, they cannot juristically be allowed to claim immunity from the laws of the marketplace that relate to contractors in this country.