By Ragan M. Conteh
Abass Janneh, Chairman of the Sierra Leone Timber Association, was on Friday embarrassed by MPs after he was earlier summoned before the Parliamentary Committee on Environment to produce relevant documents as requested by the Committee.
The committee had threatened that the Chairman should either produce the said documents or would be brought in for contempt of parliament
Hon. Abdul Karim Kamara, representing Constituency 059, noted during the hearings that the Timber Association Chairman wanted to treat the Committee with levity by failing to adhere to the their demands.
The MP further vowed that they would not take the matter lightly as the Committee was collecting billions of Leones and hence must be able to account for such funds.
Chairman of Committee on Environment, Hon. Ibrahim Tawa Conteh, cited the provisions contained in section 93 (3) of the 1991 Constitution which mandates them to enquire into and investigate into the activities of MDA’s.
Hon Tawa recounted that the clerk of the Committee had written a letter of summon to the Timber Association for over a month now to submit certain relevant documents to the committee for scrutiny.
The Hon MP further specifically directed the Timber Chairman to submit documents of the total number of Timber depots operating in Sierra Leone, total number of funds collected and exported.
The Committee also requested document of the total amount collected per container at Mile 38 Checkpoint starting 2017 to date.
Hon Tawa further noted that since the Association was unable to defend their activities by failing to present the document as requested for by the committee, they had no option but to stand down the Association members with a view for them to put together all the requested documents for onward submission to the committee on Tuesday 3rd March 2020 for further scrutiny.