By Musa Paul Feika
The Speaker of Parliament Hon. Sengepoh Solomon Thomas has vowed to disclose the names of Members of Parliament that are notorious for absenteeism and are also not punctual for parliamentary meetings.
Speaker Solomon informed the House that Parliamentarians, who have not been attending sittings on time, will not be considered for any Committee appointments in the Sixth Session.
In addition, he assured MPs who chairmanships have been removed for a the reason best known to the House to be reinstated as chairman and chairpersons for their respective committee they were previously presiding over.
Furthermore, Speaker Sengepoh Solomon Thomas called the names of a few Members of Parliament who have been very punctual, including Hon. Musa Fofanah, Hon. Paul Samba Conteh, Hon. Abdulai Karim Kanu, Hon. Adama Bangura, Hon. Daniel Brima Koroma among others as “diligent and dedicated Members to the service of their peoples and country.”
The Speaker went on to inform the House that by the end of the House’s calendar year, Parliament will give awards to deserving Members of Parliament that have been serving the country with due diligence.
“For Members of Parliament who are going to represent this House at the Mano River Union (MRU) Parliament, their regular and punctual attendances are going to be considered. It is good for us to representatives that have demonstrated enormous dedication and service to the working of this Parliament at the MRU Parliament as our Ambassadors,” Speaker Thomas emphasized.
According to the Honourable Speaker, absenteeism in the Sixth Parliament “has become unbecoming” noting with disdain that opposition MPs are pointing fingers at their colleagues from the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party for their consistent and persistent absence for parliamentary sittings.
It has no doubt been noticed that on many occasions, the House has found it extremely tedious to form a quorum and in most of these situations, the ruling aisle has been completely and empty while the opposition MPs will be in their good number.
In several of these situations, Speaker Thomas had been enraged at the ruling bench, and has been forced to take Standing Order disciplinary actions especially against some ruling party MPs that are Chairpersons of Parliamentary Committees by stopping their oversight functions.
However, despite the frustrations exhibited by the Honourable Speaker due to this inconsiderate absenteeism of mostly ruling party MPs, his hands appear to be tide to his back making him inactive in taking disciplinary actions against the defaulters.
“Until or unless drastic action is taken against those truant MPs by the Speaker, the House will be finding it difficult to form quorum,” an Observer of Parliament commented.
It is not gainsaying that the lack of punctuality of Members of Parliament can negatively impact negatively on the legislative achievements of the House and also that it impugns on the integrity and dignity of the legislative arm of government, thereby deepening mistrust in the citizens who voted for them into Parliament.