Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698829543448.pdf (Sierra Leone)
OAU DRIVE, TOWER HILL, FREETOWN P A R L I A M E N T A R Y D E B A T E S ____ (HANSARD) ______________ OFFICIAL HANSARD REPORT THIRD SESSION - THIRD MEETING THURSDAY, 12TH FEBRUARY, 2015 SESSION – 2014/2015 1 OAU DRIVE, TOWER HILL, FREETOWN P A R L I A M E N T A R Y D E B A T E S ____ (HANSARD) ______________ OFFICIAL HANSARD REPORT VOLUME: I NUMBER: 8 Third Meeting of the Third Session of the Fourth Parliament Of the Second Republic of Sierra Leone.
__________________________________________________ Proceedings of the Sitting of the House Held on Thursday, 12th February, 2015.

_________________________________________________________ 2 CONTENTS: I. PRAYERS II.

RECORD OF VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS FOR THE PARLIAMENTARY SIT- TING HELD ON TUESDAY, 10TH FEBRUARY, 2015.

III.
III.

PAPERS LAID THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CLSJ INTER-CONNECTION ON LENDING AGREEEMENT BETWEEN THE REPUBLIC OF SIERRA LEONE AND CLSJ REGIONAL TRANSMISSION COMPANY, SIGNED IN FREE- TOWN, ON THE 20TH JANUARY, 2015, AND INHABITANT ON THE 29TH JANUARY, 2015.

(B) THE CHAIRMAN, PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE THE AUDIT REPORT ON THE MANAGEMENT OF THE EBOLA FUND FROM MAY - OC- TOBER, 2015 IV.

QUESTION 001 – HONOURABLE CLAUDE D. M. KAMANDA TO ASK THE MINISTER OF WATER RESOURCES.
3 THE CHAMBER OF PARLIAMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SIERRA LEONE Official Hansard Report of the Proceedings of the House __________________________________________________________ THIRD SESSION - THIRD MEETING OF THE FOURTH PARLIAMENT OF THE SECOND REPUBLIC _____________________________ Thursday, 12th February, 2015.

The House met at 10:00 a.m. in Parliament Building, Tower Hill, Freetown.

I. PRAYERS [The Clerk of Parliament, Hon.

Ibrahim S. Sesay, Read the Prayers].

[The Speaker, Hon.
[The Speaker, Hon.

Sheku Badara Basiru Dumbuya, in the Chair].

The House was called to Order 4 COMMUNICATION FROM THE CHAIR THE SPEAKER: I want to inform the Leaders that I am not impressed with today‟s attendance and something must be done to discourage such practice.

HON.

IBRAHIM R. BUNDU (Majority Leader of the House and Leader of Government Business): Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I want to crave your indulgence to make some amendment on the Order Paper.
I want item III on the Order Paper to include (A) „Laying of Paper, the Audit Service Report,‟ and item III (B) to include the Report on the Management of the Ebola Fund from May - October, 2014, by the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee.

I would also want to make reference to Item 5, to explain that the Minister of Works, Housing and Infrastruc- ture is unavoidably absent.
So, I crave your indulgence to delete the item that has to do with the Ministry for today‟s proceeding: “Parliamentary Briefing the Minister of Works, Housing and Technical Maintenance.” Thank you very much.

THE SPEAKER: Honourable Members, it has been suggested that under item III, we insert items „A and B.‟ Also, because of the exigency, we cannot transact the business under item V because the Acting Minister of Works is out of the city.
I think he has been sent out of the city by His Excellency the President on an urgent mis- sion.

Any objection to the Amendments made by the Majority Leader of the House?

II.

CORRECTION OF VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS FOR THE PARLIAMENTARY SITTING HELD ON TUESDAY, 10TH FEBRUARY, 2015.

THE SPEAKER: Honourable Members, as usual, we go to the Votes and Proceed- ings for the parliamentary sitting held on Tuesday, 10th February, 2015.

Page 1?

Page 2?

Page 3?

Page 4?

Page 5?

Page 6?

Page 7?

Page 8?


There being no amend- ment or correction, can somebody move for the adoption of the record of Votes and Proceedings for the parliamentary sitting held on Tuesday, 10th February, 2015.

HON.

MABINTY K. SILLAH: Mr Speaker, I so move.

THE SPEAKER: Any Seconder?

HON.

ABIE KALOKO: I so second, MR Speaker.


5 (Question Proposed, Put and Agreed to) (The Record of Votes and Proceedings for the parliamentary sitting, held on Tues- day, 10th February, 2015, has been unanimously adopted as presented) III.
PAPERS LAID (a) MR F. B. L. MANSARAY, MINISTER OF STATE, MINISTRY OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT MR F. B. L. MANSARAY: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I rise to lay the fol- lowing Lending Agreements on the Table of the House for Ratification: “CLSJ INTER-CONNECTION ON LENDING AGREEEMENT BETWEEN THE REPUBLIC OF SIERRA LEONE AND CLSJ REGIONAL TRANSMISSION COMPANY, SIGNED IN FREETOWN, ON THE 20TH JANUARY, 2015, AND INHABITANT ON THE 29TH JANU- ARY, 2015.” (B) THE CHAIRMAN, PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE HON.
CHERNOR R. M. BAH: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I wish to lay on the Table of House the Audit Service Sierra Leone Report, „The Audit of the Man- agement of the Ebola Fund from May - October, 2015 (Applause).

IV.

QUESTION 001 – HONOURABLE CLAUDE D. M. KAMANDA TO ASK THE MINISTER OF WATER RESOURCES.

THE SPEAKER: Honourable Members, I want to inform the House that there are procedures regarding question time.

HON.

CLAUDE D. M. KAMANDA: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I stand on Question 001.
THE SPEAKER: Honourable Members, you already have the question on the Order Paper; and when the Minister will be answering the questions, Honourable Members are kindly referred to Sections 19, 20, 21 and 22 of the Standing Orders.

MR MOMODU MALIGIE: Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Mr Speaker, the question re- ferred to the Waterloo Water Supply Project, which was slated to start in January, 2014.

The Honourable Member wanted to know why the delay in the implementation of the Project.
Mr Speaker, this Project started in January, 2014, to give water to Waterloo; and the project has three parts.

The first part was the Rehabilitation of 6 Dam One, the Transmission and Mains and Reticulation System.

The same activity was supposed to be done for Dam Two and Dam Three.

Mr Speaker, when these Projects started, we encountered three problems that resulted in the delay of the work.
We encountered problem in terms of the delay in the disbursement of funds by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development and delay due to some issues that had to do with the Rural District Council.
The issues were that they had asked for certain percentage for the purposes of monitoring and evaluation; and as a re- sult, when the funds were disbursed from the Ministry of Finance, we had problems relating to the contractor, coupled with other problems posed by the community in terms of hiring the labour force from the community.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I want to inform this House that when the transmission pipes were laid, some community members attacked the Contractor and a good number of those pipes were destroyed in the process.

When SALWACO and the Ministry of Water Resources intervened, they were able to get the Contrac- tor to restart work.

However, the Ebola outbreak further delayed the implementation of the project.
However, the project has been completed up to about fifty percent; and we look forward to the end of Ebola to continue the implementation process.

Thank You, Mr Speaker.

THE SPEAKER: Mr Clerk, I was told that the answer to this question was circulated to Honourable Members.

HON.

CLAUDE D. M. KAMANDA: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I stand on Standing Orders 22 (2).
We have heard the Minister of Water Resources‟ response, but under Standing Order 22 (2), I have follow-up questions in order for the Minister to adequately clarify issues to the House.

He did state in his response that the Pro- ject is slated for three phases.

That is not the case because on the day for the launching, he did explain to us that all the three Dams would go alongside for six months.

Therefore, I want the Minister to tender to us the original BOQ.
Secondly, Mr Speaker, in the report, the Minister did state that the Project had been extended.

I want the Minister to tell this House the time of the extension or the time this Project will be completed.

Thirdly, the Minister blamed the Rural District Council for asking for percentage to monitor the Project.

I want the Minister to tell this 7 House the involvement of the Council, from the formulation of the Project to its im- plementation.
Also, Mr Speaker, the Minister said that the community attacked the Contractor for not hiring people within the community.

Well, maybe the Community was not aware of the start of the Project; and I believe it was a surprise to the Community to see different people working in their Community without their knowledge.

When I spoke with the Village Head of Waterloo, and he made it very clear that they were surprised about the start of the Project.
They called the atten- tion of the Contractor on the need to hire local labour.

Therefore, I want the Minister to tell this House the involvement of the people of the Waterloo in this Project.

I saw photos of the Report, claiming that these are the real photos of the two Dams.

I want the Minister to affirm to this House that these are true photos of percentages claiming to have been done on the Project.

Thank you.
Thank you.

MR MOMODU MALIGIE: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I did not say there were three phases to the Project.

I said there were three Dams to be implemented in this Project and I will give the Honourable House the percentage of work done.

HON.

CLAUDE D. M. KAMANDA: Mr Speaker, I want to refer the House to Page 3.
With the leave of the Speaker, it says: ‟The Waterloo Garbage Scheme is divided into four phases.‟ MR MOMODU MALIGIE: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, based on what has been done, I will like to give the percentages in respect of what has already been completed: Dam 1 – Mobilisation Site Preparation: Eighty percent (80%) of that has been done.

Rehabilitation of Dam 1 - Civil Works – 90% has been done, the Water Transmission and Distribution – 0%.
Dam 2 – Grafton Scheme (2) Mobilisation and Site Preparation – 0% and the rehabil- itation is 0%.

Water Transmission and Distribution is 0%.

Dam 3 –Mobilisation Site Preparation – 80% of the work has been done and the 80% of the rehabilitation of Dam 3 has been done.

8 HON.

CLAUDE D. M. KAMANDA: Point of Order, Mr Speaker.

I want the Minister to tell this House the yardstick he used to bring out these percentages on works done (Applause).
MR MOMODU MALIGIE: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, when such Projects are being implemented, there is a Project Management Committee that is made up of an independent Contractor and Consultant who monitor such Projects.

The Project is divided into several phases, which is then measured upon completion of certain phases.

This is how such percentages are developed, Mr Speaker.

Again, an Hon- ourable Member asked for the cost of this Project.

The total Contract Price is Le419, 609,500.


As we speak, the sum of Le32, 144,040 has been paid.

Speaking on the involvement of the Community, I am happy to report to this Honourable House that the Community was fully involved in the development and launching of this Project.

HON.

CLAUDE D. M. KAMANDA: Mr Speaker, I want the Minister to reecho the total cost of the Project.

I am saying this because the figures on the report before me and the response are dissimilar.
THE SPEAKER: Honourable Members, Honourable Ansumana J. Kaikai told me yes- terday that the responses to the questions were circulated to Members.

Therefore, I am of the opinion that Members are in possession of those responses.

Honourable Ansumana J. Kaikai is a very senior Member of this Parliament to say that is not the procedure.
I want to tell him that with my experience in Parliament, and having travelled to many other Parliaments around the World, questions are normally circu- lated to Members (Applause).

In any case, Honourable Members, there is nothing expressly provided in the Stand- ing Orders.

In the Administration of Parliament, if something is not in the Standing Orders, you must refer to some other books on parliamentary procedure and prac- tices.

One of the authorities is Erskine May.


I want people to know that I have about five other books on parliamentary procedures that are very authoritative.

MR MOMODU MALIGIE: With the leave of Mr Speaker, I would like to submit a detailed Bill of Quantities (BoQ) of this Project to this House.

9 THE SPEAKER: The Honourable Suahilo M. Koroma, you wanted to say something.

It may not be allowed, but you being the Chairman of Water Resources, I want to give you chance to say something.
Supplementary questions are normally allowed, since he does not want to ask supplementary questions, he is at liberty to say some- thing in his capacity as Chairman of Water Resources (Applause).

HON.

SUAHILO M KOROMA: Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I want to take this opportunity to make an addendum to what the Minister has just said about the challenges facing the implementation of the Project.
Mr Speaker, this House has approved members of the Board for the National Public Pro- curement Authority (NPPA).

What I wanted to say is to draw the attention of the House to Mr Mohamed Mackie Wurie, Chairman of the National Public Procurement Authority.

In his statement at the interview with the Committee on Appointments and the Public Service, he said: “The problem with procurement process in Sierra Leone is the will to implement the provisions of the Procurement Act.
I will ensure that the Bidding Process is transparent, free and fair, and that the winners of con- tracts perform within the time frame stipulated in the contract.” HON.

CLAUDE D. M. KAMANDA: Point of Order, Mr Speaker.

The Chairman of the Water Resources is telling this House that the contractor did his job within the time frame, which is contrary to the Minister.

HON.
HON.

SUAHILO M. KOROMA: Mr Speaker, one of the major problems with Con- tract Management in this country, as the Minister has just stated, is the issue of funding.

You would agree with me that MDAs normally make their proposals and tender them to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development for approval.

When once these Projects are approved, MDAs would have to ensure a competitive bidding process, so that the winner of that Contract starts the implementation of the Project.
However, that is not just the issue in this case, Mr Speaker.

The real issue is that, when these Contracts are awarded and advance payments are made, to re- trieve the balance from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development has al- ways been the problem for the completion of these Projects.

That would be the time when the Ministry of Finance would say there is no more money to continue that 10 Project.

This is major reason why many Projects have not been completed.
I want to say here that funding is a very important aspect of Project implementation.

Also, Mr Speaker, the Minister spoke about the hostile nature of the community peo- ple.

I believe when a Contract is awarded, it does not necessarily imply that the host Community should be involved in the bidding process.

In other words, after the Contract has been awarded, the Contractor would have to go into the Community to mobilise the labour force.
The Local Content Policy will come into play where the Contractor is required by law to employ most of the workers for that contract within the locality.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, if this question was brought at the Committee level, the Contractor would have been given an opportunity to explain his own side of the story.

We would have summoned the Minister of Water Resources, the Direc- tor-General of SALWACO, the Community and the Contractor to see how best we could handle this matter.
Notwithstanding that, Mr Speaker, in as much as we are here to discuss this issue, I want to believe that funding has been one of the chal- lenges hindering the implementation of this Project.

HON.

CLAUDE D. M. KAMANDA: Thank you, Mr Speaker.

I never said the com- munity should be involved in the bidding process.

What I said was that the Commu- nity people should have be hired as labourers.

This is something provided in the Lo- cal Contents Policy.
I want to sympathise with the Chairman of Water Resources and that is his job.

Thank you very much.

THE SPEAKER: Is there any aspect of the question that has not been answered satisfactorily?

HON.

CLAUDE D. M. KAMANDA: Mr Speaker, the Minister was trying to give an account of the cost of the project, but I discovered that what he has just told this House and what is written on the Report was different.
THE SPEAKER: Mr Minister, before you continue, you should have come with your Permanent Secretary here, but I came with the Director-General of SALWACO.

Mr Speaker, I have requested that I submit a detailed BoQ for this Project to this House.

11 MR MOMODU MALIGIE: Secondly, Mr Speaker, Honourable Claude D. M. Kaman- da asked about the involvement of the community.
Request made by the District Council was that ten percent (10%) of the Project should be provided for monitoring and evaluation of the Project.

This was not part of the Project and we cannot take ten percent (10%) and give it to the District Council for monitoring and evaluation.

That would undermine the Project itself.

Also, I would like to submit a letter written to the Chief Administrator by the Contractor, asking that the tools that were taken from him be returned to him.
The tools in question were confiscated by community members, which in effect brought the work to a halt (Applause).

HON.

CLAUDE D. M. KAMANDA: I am waiting for the Minister to complete the other answer before I respond accordingly.

I want to know the cost of the Project that was tendered in the BOQ to the House.

The issue of the ten percent (10%) the Council was asking for is another side of the story.
MR MOMODU MALIGIE: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I believe with the submission of BOQ, the amount involved is contained in that document.

It is difficult for me, as we speak, to give you the exact figures.

In terms of the completion of this Project, the important thing is to end the spread of the Ebola Virus Disease.

After the Ebola Virus Disease is defeated, that would be the time to tell you exactly when this Project will be completed.
THE SPEAKER: The Minister has said that he was going to provide some other documents of relevance that would be helpful to you.

I want to direct your attention to S.O.

21 (i).

HON.

CLAUDE D. M. KAMANDA: Noted, Mr Speaker.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, during the Presidential Address in the Well, the President did say that in the midst of the Ebola scourge, works on development will recommence (Applause).

I believe water is not an exception to wait after the cessation of the Ebola Virus.
MR MOMODU MALIGIE: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, unlike other sectors, the work of the Ministry of Water Resources involves active participation of the Community people.

This House would agree with me that Waterloo is presently a hot spot for the Ebola Virus (Applause).

As a result, we were afraid to jeopardise the lives of our people.

In fact, some of the areas in Waterloo were already quarantined.

12 His Excellency the President did say that work would continue.
However, there are certain aspects of civil works that cannot be continued because of the Ebola Disease.

THE SPEAKER: Honourable Members, you would like to know that in other jurisdic- tions, one of the most exciting aspects of parliamentary proceedings is „Question Time.‟ It is going to be so under my Speakership.

Mr Minister, make sure you furnish the House with the documents you have promised to submit.
(The House rose at 11.15 a.m. and was adjourned to Tuesday, 17th February, 2015, ADJOURNMENT at 10.00 a.m.) 13