By Ramatoulie Jawo
The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance and Public Accounts (FPAC) has passed a resolution requiring the Executive Director of the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) to account for all food items worth over 100 million dalasis that have not been delivered.
The draft resolution on the COVID-19 Audit Fund requires the NDMA Executive Director to account for all undelivered food items to the Accountant General and the FPAC no later than September 25, 2023. If the Executive Director fails to do so, the Inspector General of Police must launch an investigation immediately and report back to the committee within 90 days.
Hon. Alhagie S. Darboe, Chairperson of the Committee, presented the resolutions to the lawmakers. He said that the Executive Director of NDMA should account for the shortage of oil delivery by the International Commodity Insurance, which is worth GMD 37,653,700.00. Hon. Darboe also said that the money should be deposited with the National Treasury by September 25, 2023.
“The Executive Director of the NDMA must provide to the Auditor General and FPAC, the Certificate of Confiscation of the damaged food items by the Food Safety and Quality Authority (FSQA) on or before the 25th of September, 2023; failure of which, the FSQA will be summoned by FPAC. Whereas the Executive Director fails to deliver the items/sum mentioned in (1, 2 and 3) above, upon expiry of the deadline, the President must consider sending him on administrative leave pending the outcome of the police investigations,” Hon. Darboe said.
On Monday, the committee presented its report to the plenary for review and approval. The report concluded that the storage and distribution processes did not fully comply with the laws and regulations that govern them.
On Monday, the committee presented its report to the plenary for review and adoption. The report concluded that the storage and distribution processes did not fully comply with the relevant laws and regulations. Specifically, the Committee found that the distribution process was not carried out in accordance with the Stores Regulations, the Essential Commodities Emergency Powers Regulations 2020, and the President’s Proclamation of April 26, 2020. These failures, the committee found, led to some vulnerable households not receiving the food items to which they were entitled.