Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698842526056.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 SECOND SESSION - FIRST MEETING TUESDAY, 21ST MAY, 2019 SESSION – 2019/2020 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: 2 First Meeting of the Second Session of the Fifth Parliament of the Second Republic of Sierra Leone.
Proceedings of the Sitting of the House Held on Tuesday 21st May, 2019.

2 CONTENTS I. PRAYERS II.

RECORD OF VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS FOR THE PARLIAMENTARY SITTING ON THURSDAY, 2ND MAY, 2019 III.

LAYING OF PAPERS THE MINISTER OF FINANCE [I] LOAN AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT OF SIERRA LEONE AND THE AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT FUND ON THE FREETOWN WATER AND SANITATION [WASH] AND ACQUATIC ENVIRONMENT REVAMPING PROJECT DATED 18TH JANUARY 2018.
[II] PROTOCOL OF AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE REPUBLIC OF SIERRA LEONE AND THE AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT FUND ON THE FREETOWN WASH AND AQUATIC ENVIRONMENT REVAMPING PROJECT DATED 18TH JANUARY 2018.
[III] SUBSIDIARY GRANT AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT OF SIERRA LEONE REPRESENTED BY THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE AND GUMA VALLEY WATER COMPANY DATED 29TH MARCH 2019 [IV] SUBSIDIARY LOAN AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE GOVERNMENT OF SIERRA LEONE AND GUMA VALLEY WATER COMPANY DATED 29TH MARCH 2019 [V] FINANCING AGREEMENT ON RURAL FINANCE AND COMMUNITY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMME-PHASE II [RFCIP 2] BETWEEN THE REPUBLIC OF SIERRA LEONE AND THE INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPEMENT DATED 22ND NOVEMBER 2018.
[VI] FINANCING AGREEMENT ON THE FINANCIAL INCLUSION PROJECT BETWEEN THE REPUBLIC OF SIERRA LEONE AND THE INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION DATED 27TH FEBRUARY 2019.

3 [VII] FINANCIAL AGREEMENT - AGRICULTURE VALUE-CHAIN DEVELOPMENT PROJECT [AVDP] BETWEEN THE REPUBLIC OF SIERRA LEONE AND THE INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT DATED 1ST JANUARY 2019.
[VIII] PROTOCOL OF AGREEMENT AMONGST THE REPUBLIC OF SIERRA LEONE, THE AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK AND AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT FUND AS ADMINISTRATORS OF THE TRANSITION SUPPORT FACILITY FOR THE FISCAL CONSOLIDATION SUPPORT PROGRAMME DATED 29TH APRIL, 2019.
4 THE CHAMBER OF PARLIAMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SIERRA LEONE Official Hansard Report of the Proceedings of the House _____________________________________________________________ SECOND SESSION – FIRST MEETING OF THE FIFTH PARLIAMENT OF THE SECOND REPUBLIC _____________________________ Tuesday, 21st May, 2019.

I. PRAYERS [The Table Clerk, Mrs Bintu Weston, read the prayers] [The House met at 10:30 a.m. in Parliament Building, Tower Hill, Freetown] [The Speaker, Hon.
Dr Abass Chernor Bundu in the Chair] The House was called to Order 5 II.

CORRECTION OF VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS FOR THE PARLIAMENTARY Suspension of S. O.

5[2] SITTING HELD ON THURSDAY 2ND MAY, 2019.

COMMUNICATION FROM THE CHAIR THE SPEAKER: Honourable Members, we go through the record of Votes and Proceedings for the parliamentary sitting, held on Thursday, 2nd May, 2019.

As usual, we shall skip pages 1 to 4, which contain the names of Members of Parliament.
Honourable Members, please confine your observations and amendments starting from the bottom of Page 5.

Do you have any observations or amendments?

Page 6.

Page 7?

On the 2nd of May 2019, that was what was read out in Parliament.

If that is so, then I will direct that the appropriate amendment be effected.

HON.

BRIMA MANSARAY: I move the adoption of the Votes and Proceedings.

HON.

JOSEPH WILLIAMS-LAMIN: I so second Mr Speaker.


[Question Proposed, Put and Agreed To] [Record of Votes and Proceedings for the Parliamentary Sitting held on Thursday 2nd May, 2019 has been adopted as amended] III.

PAPERS LAID THE MINISTER OF FINANCE THE SPEAKER: Yes, Mr Acting Leader of Opposition?

HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: It is just to remind ourselves about the common practice in this House of presenting to Members of Parliament documents at a time that is not very convenient for our own perusal.
This again has been repeated today with the arrival of the Deputy Minister of Finance to lay documents at a time when most of our own Membership on this side are complaining that Members are not very knowledgeable about the session of today but we are not just talking about the session of today, we are also talking about the fact that persistently documents are made to come to this House very late.

I am not even questioning whether these documents 6 have been printed earlier or not.
I am merely stating that for today these documents are coming to Members of Parliament especially our own side of the House at a time that is not very convenient to us.

Mr Speaker, I want you to note it down that this is about the 10th time this side of the House has complained.

THE SPEAKER: Have you been counting?

HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: Yes, I have been counting.


So, because of that, we also want you to declare these documents not to debated and I will not again ask that this is not repeated again because I am very certain that it will be repeated but the fact of the matter is that for the purpose of records, we want it to be noted that we are not convenient, we are not happy and we are not comfortable with this arrangement of bringing documents to this House in this very late fashion.

Thank you Mr Speaker.


THE SPEAKER: The Acting Leader of the Opposition is the man for whom I have the highest regard and respect.

While I take note of the protestation he has just made, as far as these particular agreements are concern, it is my recollection that these agreements had been distributed to Members Parliament long before now.
I know in your protestation you laid particular reference to your side of the House, but my recollection is that these documents had been distributed to all Members of Parliament without exception.

Mr Clerk, can you confirm that please?

HON.

UMAR PARAN TARAWALLY [Clerk of Parliament]: Mr Speaker, this is confirmed.

The documents were laid by the Honourable Deputy Leader of Government Business in his capacity as Acting Leader of Government Business.
They were laid during the First Session, but because the First Session has elapsed they are going to be relayed in accordance with the Standing Orders but they have been distributed and laid.

HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: We are not questioning the earlier availability of the Documents.

We are stating that after keeping the documents for such a long time and bringing the same documents to Parliament so late, to us it is not confortable nor convenient for us.
In future, I hope that this does not happen again Mr Speaker.

7 HON.

MATHEW S. NYUMA: Mr Speaker, with your leave, I think this House is a House of procedures.

On that day, I can remember, the Acting Leader of the Opposition Moved a Motion on Standing Order 26 saying "if our conditions are not met by the Ministry of Finance we cannot Debate their documents."

And certain conditions have been met.

Is that not so Honourable Members?


[Applause] Because certain conditions have been met that is the reason why we are here discussing these documents Mr Speaker.

[Applause] So, I do not want us to forget in a worry.

Mr Speaker, I do not want my colleagues on the other side to make us look bad in the eyes of the Public.
Indeed, you Moved a Motion and because of what you said, as a responsible Leader of Government Business and his team we encouraged the Minister of Finance to do the needful and that was done.

I believe we are here today because certain conditions have been met.

Mr Speaker, this is my submission [Applause].

HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: Mr Speaker, we are talking about those things that must be done to make this House function properly Mr Speaker and not the pecuniary aspect of it.

Thank you.

HON.
Thank you.

HON.

MATHEW S. NYUMA: Mr Speaker, my Leader of the Opposition with all due respect you have not given us the procedure.

The procedure is you should be given the documents 24 hours prior to the Debate.

If you check your Standing Orders but these documents have been given to you for over 100 hours.

You Moved a Motion and that impeded us from proceeding with the Proceedings.

So we are here basically to re-lay the documents.

THE SPEAKER: No, he did not move a Motion.

HON.


MATHEW S. NYUMA: He moved a Motion Mr Speaker.

THE SPEAKER: He did not move a Motion, not to my hearing.

HON.

MATHEW S. NYUMA: It was in the past, not now.

The day I laid the documents at the Bank Complex the Motion was moved.

You cannot just bastardize your Motion sir.

You are a man of high integrity, so, you have to respect what you do sir.
So, Mr 8 Speaker, I believe, in fact you need to withdraw the Motion and move the Debate forward because certain conditions have been met Mr Acting Leader of Opposition.

THE SPEAKER: On the understanding that the documents in question had been distributed long before now, on the further understanding that a period of time has elapsed since that now warrants relaying of those documents, I want to believe that the Acting Leader of the Opposition is now satisfied and we can proceed.

Thank you.
Thank you.

Are you about to answer the question about the bridge because I saw something on Social Media?

[Laughter] HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Yes, I have so many answers.

THE SPEAKER: Congratulations with your bridge.

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Including your participation and support for which we are grateful.

Mr Speaker, I refer you to S.O 16 and S.O 72 [b].


Mr Speaker, Honourable Members going into S.O 72 [a] and [b], [a] is not necessary here, the purpose of [a] is just to inform this House that there is a Committee called the Business Committee but 2[b] states the functions of the Business Committee.

Mr Speaker, with your leave may I read?

THE SPEAKER: Which one?

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: S.O 72[b] and then S.O 16.

S.O 72[a] is for the establishment of the Committee so I do not need to read that one.
With your leave Sir, "it shall be the duty of the Committee subject to S.O 15, arrangement of Public Business to determine the business of each day and the order in which it shall be taken."

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I have been well informed.

THE SPEAKER: No.

Would you please complete the reading?

I do not like you when you are midflight.

You know, half way reading of Provisions tend to be misleading.

So, go to the very end.

9 HON.


DANIEL B. KOROMA: Okay, no problem, I was just scared about the time.

"Provided that the powers of the Committee shall be without prejudice to the powers of Mr Speaker to determine which matters may properly be introduced into the House?"

In fact, this is even better.

Provided it does not prejudice the powers of Mr Speaker to determine which matters will be properly laid before the House.
That is saying for instance, if you have 1, 2 or 3 items and then certain items conflict with each other, it is the duty of Mr Speaker even though, the Business Committee has the right to determine what happens but the final say rest with Mr Speaker to determine among the lot which one is more proper than the others, which one is to be properly laid or to be properly debated, analysed in the House.

So, this one is even better.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I now go over to S.O 16 before I make my point.
It is entitled: "Business Statement" I now read: "Every Thursday…" Mind you, for the attention of the public, Thursday is referenced here because it is the usual last day of sittings of the week.

Usually it is the very last day of sitting of the week that is why reference is made here to Thursday.

"Every Thursday the Chairman of the Business Committee shall make a statement to the House of the Business arranged for the succeeding week."
In other words, succeeding meetings or Sittings of Parliament, "but if the first week of any meeting begins on a day earlier than Thursday, he shall make a statement of the Business arranged for that week if possible on the first day of such Meeting".

For instance, if the meeting is to be held on Tuesday, he is still bound to tell this House the Business that will be brought before Parliament on Thursday which is the normal day for the next sitting.

He is still bound to inform us.

I am on my legs sir.


HON.

SIDIE M. TUNIS: Mr Speaker, point of Order.

Mr Speaker, in the first place, I agree with my Honourable Member that on a Thursday I probably was supposed to have made my announcement but unfortunately my Honourable Members worked out of Parliament on that very Thursday.

[Applause] So, please spear me that.

10 HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, you see how trivial the Leader of Government Business is treating this matter?
That Thursday can never be the last Thursday for the sittings of Parliament.

That Thursday was purely for His Excellency the President to address this House, it was not for our normal sittings [Applause] it was not the last Thursday for sittings.

He is just treating this matter with levity.

I am coming to my point, I am just reading.

THE SPEAKER: I really want to shorten the argument.

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Yes Sir but I am here to make my point Sir.
For the attention of the Public, I wish to make this point that we on this side we are not in any way averse to debating these all important documents and in fact, it is mentioned, the importance of these documents that we deem it fit that due diligence must be done to these documents [Applause].
And here, we are not denying the fact that the papers were not laid in the House and based on the expertise of the Clerk, he was once a Member of Parliament, he was very smart that he directed that it needs to be laid again.

You were very smart Sir and I say kudos to you.

We are not objecting to any matter of laying of papers or been served to us that is not our point.
Our point is, order of Business of the House [Applause] and I am made to believe that yesterday there were discussions between the Leadership of the All People's Congress [APC] and the Leadership of the ruling Government in this House and Mr Speaker, if we are to be true to ourselves, you will agree with me that by the time that meeting ended yesterday it was pronounced clearly that today's sitting will not hold [Applause].

To thy self be true.

We know that this meeting was adjourned yesterday.


All of a sudden we only received the order paper this morning.

So Mr Speaker, Honourable Members if we are to do due diligence to this country; our mother land, how do you expect us to read all these document; eight in total Madam Minister, how could we read these documents and guide you as we are here to guide you.

I know but we were never informed that these documents are to be debated and ratified today.
I am not saying it was not laid before but according to S.O 16 and S.O 72 [b] the Business Committee Based on the various political parties is to ensure we are aware of what comes for the day.

On a daily bases 11 every sitting of Parliament, Members of Parliament are to be aware that this is the order of the business of today.

And that should be done much earlier so that that will empower us to guide you, the reason for this ratification is to guide you.
But some of those agreements let me tell you, you are not their babies.

They are entering into these agreements for their own interest and not for the interest of Sierra Leone.

So that is the rational why every agreement must come before this House for our guidance.
But unfortunately Mr Speaker, Honourable Members we want to make it known to the public that as it is now we are unable to guide you because we were not informed in time to guide the Honourable Minister as you come here on behalf of the people of Sierra Leone.

Thank you very much.

THE SPEAKER: I thank the very able and erudite Honourable Member, the Honourable Daniel Koroma very much.
The only problem I have with your submission is while I take your point clearly spelt out in S.O 16 that every Thursday in every week; that is what is being referred to the business of the House has to be determined in advanced that is what that S.O is saying.

So I agree with you.

That starting from next Thursday, this Thursday, the right thing will be done.

Order!

Order!

Order!

Wait for me to finish and then you can make your comment.
Now let me refer you to Section 93 of the Constitution which overrides everything else.

Go specifically to Section 93[1] what does it tell you, the Business Committee to which you have made reference has to be constituted or reconstituted that has yet to be done and until it is done I as Speaker takes control of the Business of the House [Applause] and I was properly consulted on this particular matter so on that understanding we proceed Madam Minister you have the Floor.
MRS PATRICIA N. LAVERLEY: Honourable Speaker, Members of Parliament be it resolved… [Interrupted] HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Mr Speaker that cannot be the spirit.

THE SPEAKER: Hold on.

Honourable Acting Leader let me listen to you.

12 HON.
12 HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: You have made a very fundamental statement for taking over the administrative Leadership of this House for which we congratulate you and again you conceded to the fact that Honourable Koroma was right in his presentation but what we want to make very clear here is that the point have to be over emphasized that people do not come here with documents last minute and expect us to read and digest them and make a sensible debate on them that is our point.
Whenever we take a position on this matter you think we are troublesome and we are not.

THE SPEAKER: No Honourable Acting Leader of the Opposition that particular point is what I want to address with the greatest respect.

We are dealing with documents that have been distributed to Members of Parliament long before now.
You had sufficient time to read those documents, you ought to have read those documents we are only really re-laying those documents because of the effluxion of time from the last time they were laid.

I really do not understand with the greatest respect the point that you want to emphasize and over emphasize, you are not been taken by surprise.

No!

No!

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: That is the point Mr Speaker, that is exactly the point Mr Speaker.
THE SPEAKER: Hold on, the point that I know the Acting Leader is trying to emphasize is that he believes that Members of Parliament have been taken by surprise.

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: That is our point Mr Speaker.

THE SPEAKER: But how could you.

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: The Order Paper… [Interruption] THE SPEAKER: Honourable Daniel Koroma I have not given you the Floor.

And I am speaking.

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Sorry Sir.


13 THE SPEAKER: How can you say in all fairness when these documents are within your possession, they have been within your possession for as long as I care to remember so I am at a loss.

HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: And which were given to us only this morning and we are expected to digest THE SPEAKER: Documents were distributed as in your own admission three months ago nothing has changed in those documents.

HON.
HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: that time expired Mr Speaker, that time expired and we cannot continue with them when we have other documents to read.

And certainly you have started to make a very good point by attempting to make … [Interruption] THE SPEAKER: Use your microphone I cannot hear you.

HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: Mr Speaker, the day is saved by the fact that it is not another Minister of Finance that is here today.
This is why we are taking our time, if it were another Minister of Finance today it would have been a different day but we will allow the lady to lay the paper because it is not another Minister of Finance.

Thank you very much.

MRS PATRICIA N. LAVERLEY: Mr Speaker… [Interruption] THE SPEAKER: Hold on Madam Minister.

I want the Honourable Minister to be heard in decorum please.

The Acting Leader of the Opposition has just spoken and now I am seeing the Whip rising up on the same issue.
The fact that you have not taken your seat means you are really insisting on making your point.

HON.

HASSAN A SESAY: Just a brief one Mr Speaker THE SPEAKER: Okay if it is brief I will allow you.

HON.

HASSAN A SESEY: Very brief.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members like you have said, the Leader has said it, the Acting Leader has said it and Honourable Daniel Koroma have said it.

What I want us to do to resolve this issue amicable is to have the papers laid today and we debate them on Thursday.
We are not averse to the fact of 14 this process and let us understand one thing and that is, we do not intend to stand on the way of any document that is meant for the good of this country that is not our aim but we only want it to be given the fairness that it deserves.

Mr Speaker you have said months ago that these documents were given to us and we were not notified yesterday that the documents that were given to us months ago are going to be debated today.
If today the documents are laid then give us time until Thursday to discuss these documents, that I think is a reasonable way to go.

Thank you Mr Speaker.

HON.

SIDIE M. TUNIS: I agree with my Honourable Members on the other side but for today I actually want to appeal to all of you… thank you, thank you thank you very much.
I just want to appeal to my Honourable colleagues on the other side for this ratification to take place today because these agreements are time bound please Honourable Members let us do the ratification today thank you.

THE SPEAKER: I presume that Honourable Members on my left have accepted the appeal just made by the Leader of Government Business.

That being the case I thank all of you for being so magnanimous.

Madam Minister proceed.
MRS PATRICIA N. LAVERLEY: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I wish to lay the following documents before this Honourable House: [i] Loan Agreement between the Government of Sierra Leone and the African Development Fund on the Freetown Water and Sanitation [Wash] and Aquatic Environment Revamping Project, Dated 18th January, 2018; [ii] Protocol of Agreement between the Republic of Sierra Leone and the African Development Fund on the Freetown Wash and Aquatic Environment Revamping Project, Dated 18th January, 2018; [iii] Subsidiary Grant Agreement between the Government of Sierra Leone Represented by the Ministry of Finance and Guma Valley Water Company, Dated 29th March 2019; [iv] Subsidiary Loan Agreement between the Government of Sierra Leone and Guma Valley Water Company, Dated 29th March, 2019; 15 [V] Financing Agreement on Rural Finance and Community Improvement Programme- Phase II [RFCIP 2] between the Republic of Sierra Leone and the International Fund For Agricultural Development, Dated 22nd November, 2018; [vi] Financing Agreement on the Financial Inclusion Project between the Republic of Sierra Leone and the International Development Association Dated 27th February 2019.
[vii] Financial Agreement - Agriculture Value-Chain Development Project [AVDP] Between the Republic of Sierra Leone and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, Dated 1st January, 2019; and [viii] Protocol of Agreement amongst the Republic of Sierra Leone, the African Development Bank and African Development Fund as Administrators of the Transition Support Facility for the Fiscal Consolidation Support Programme, Dated 29th April, 2019.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members be it resolved that this Honourable House ratify the Agreements mentioned above which were just laid on the Table of the House on the 21st April, 2019.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the first four agreements are grants and loan agreements with their respective subsidiary agreements in relation to the Freetown Water and Sanitation [WASH] and Aquatic Revamping Project.
This project covers the greater Freetown area and the main objective is to contribute to 15% increase in the access to safe water supply and a 7% increase in improved sanitation in Sierra Leone.
This project has four components the first component is on water supply infrastructure improvements under this component we will be rehabilitating and expanding two existing water treatment plants, we will rehabilitate two buster pumping stations including the stand-by capacity, we will rehabilitate seven existing reservoirs, we will rehabilitate one hundred and twenty public taps, we will establish fifty thousand water meters improving access to households to safe water supply.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, under the second component of this project, we would construct 18 kilometers of water transmission mains, we would construct as I mentioned 9 water treatment plants, 7 new reservoirs and establish 200 kilometers of 16 water distribution pipes throughout the country and of course fifty thousand water connections Mr Speaker, Honourable Members the third component relates to improving the capacity for the integrated water resource management and livelihood improvement.
Under this component in this project we would promote youth and women employment through the nurturing of micro enterprises and providing improved water supply including specifically in the municipal areas of the country.

We would improve the [46:18] and solid waste management regulation, develop community base water resources, solid waste management; we would advocate behavioral changes in the way solid waste is managed.

And work on child nutrition campaigns.


The final component under this project would focus on project management which would retain a portion of the finance to ensure that the overall project and coordination is effectively managed.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, our Government also entered into subsidiary loan agreements with the Guma Valley Water Company with the understanding that the company would re-pay the loan to the Government of Sierra Leone for onward payment to the African Development Bank.
The proposed total financing for this project is $174mln of which the African Development Fund Bank[ADB] is providing only $14mln and that is the agreement that have been laid in this House.

The duration of the $14mil will be for 40 years including a grace period of 10 years commencing on the date of the loan agreement.

A commitment charge of .05% per annum shall be paid on the undisbursed loan balance it shall begin to accrue 120 days after date of the loan agreement.
Similarly a service charged of 0.75% per annum shall be paid on the disbursed loan balance.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, other donors notably the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, the Islamic Development Bank and others have also been contacted to affect the financing gap and these financing agreements, and these additional financing agreements will also be brought to this noble House we are only tabling the $14.14mln.
the second agreement on the Rural Financing Community Improvement Project relates to strengthening and broadening the rural finance system and 17 establishing stronger linkage systems with the agricultural sector.

The overall object of the programme is to improve access to rural financial services thereby enabling the development of the agricultural sector.
The programme will scale up the on-going rural finance improvement programmes to a national level and forge stronger linkages with IFAD so as to support Rural Financial Institutions.

This programme has two components; the first is to strengthen the expanding rural financial programme and these components has three sub components which focus on strengthening the community banks.
We would be focusing on them as I mentioned the community banks in an effort to promote them by designing specific agricultural products that will directly meet the needs of the most deserving farmers.

The third is the establishment of temporary investment facilities in the community banks that way we can broaden the access of our farmers to credit facility in these banks.

The second component under the IFAD project relates to programme management, capacity building and coordination.
This component would ensure that the programme is efficiently managed so that the expected result would be achieved.

Gender, youth, environment and knowledge management would be integrated into all aspects of the programme through the National Programme Coordination Unit [NPCU].

The total additional financing is $9mln and is a grant on highly concessional terms interest free.
It is a 50% grant and a 50% loan three-fourth of 1% per annum payable on semi-annual bases and has a maturity period of 40 years including a grace period of 10 years starting from the date of approval of the additional loan.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the third financing agreement relates to the financial inclusion project between the Republic of Sierra Leone and IDA.
M Speaker, the main objective of this third financing agreement is to increase the interoperability of digital payment system and access to financial services nationwide.

Interoperability between financial service providers allows users of the financial system including households, enterprises and Government to make payment to anyone in a convenient, affordable, fast and secured way.
The interoperability of payment will be done through the creation of payment switches to which financial service provides will channel transactions 18 between customer accounts.

This project would also seek financial sector development and inclusion by providing access to improved financial services across the entire country.
The first component would focus on enhancing the interoperability of digital payment and the first part of the project would carry out the following activities; provision of technical advisory services to develop a sustainable business model for payment switch including the operation procedures.

It will include provisions of hard- ware and soft-ware and consulting services which are required to successfully implement the payment switch.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the third activity is the provision of technical advisory services to oversee the use and maintenance of the payment switch and upgrade the existing hard-ware and soft-ware at the bank of Sierra Leone.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members the fourth and final activity is the provision of technical services to test the new payment switch that would be established under this project and conduct the necessary security audit and network penetration test so that all banks across this country would be able to communicate with each other in real time.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the second component under this project is related to ensuring the viability of the payment system through increased usage of the new system.
Under this component we would carry out activities to support linkages to the payment system including installations, maintenance of sale terminals, developing national standards for mobile wallets, provisions of goods and training required for promoting increased usage of the payment switch and facilitating Government payment of revenue collection via electronic methods.
We would carry out activities in rural and underserved parts of the country and rural financial service providers to ensure that they are all connected to the new payment switch.

We would be conducting an assessment of opportunities for rural connectivity to new payment switch.
This would entail installing soft-ware and hard-ware as well as supporting data migration and providing the relevant technical and advisory services as well as implementing adequate training programmes throughout the country to ensure the new payment system is 19 connected to the backbone.
The final activity under the financial inclusion project relates to activities to overcome cyber security huddles to the overall payment infrastructure and this would entail carrying out improvement in the cyber security frame work needed for the payment system including developing guide lines, licenses, legislations and relations to support the new payment system as well as developing and implementing financial awareness initiatives relating to improving digital financial services across the country.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the funding for this project is a credit of $12mln the principal amount of the credit shall be paid semi-annually over a period of 32 years after a grace period of 6 years after the date of signature of the financing agreement.

The maximum commitment charge is one-half [1½] of 1% per annum on the grant financing balance.
The service charge is the greater of three-fourth [3/4] of 1% per annum plus the basic adjustment to the service charge and three-fourth [3/4] of 1% per annum of the withdrawn credit balance of the loan.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the fourth financing agreement relates to the agricultural value chain development project between Sierra Leone and IFAD.

The goal of this project is the improvement of livelihoods, food security and climate change resilience of improved farming household in Sierra Leone.
The main object of this project is to increase income for small holder farmers for promoting agriculture as a business.

The first component relates to climate resilient and smart agriculture production.

The second components relates to agriculture market development.

Now this component has two sub components; market access and climate resilient rural infrastructure.

The third component relates to project coordination and management.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the total additional financing agreement for this project with IFAD is $11mln.

And this is a grant on highly concessional terms and it is free of interest.

It is 50% grant and a 50% loan with a service charge of three-fourth [3/4] of 1% per annum payable semi-annual in the original loan currency.
This agreement has a maturity period of 40 years including a grace period of 10 years starting from the date of approval of the original loan 20 Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the fifth and final loan agreement relates to the fiscal consolidation support programme.
Mr Speaker, the fiscal consolidation support programme is a series of programmatic budget support operations over a two year period aiming at the consolidation of the country’s fiscal programme to carry out reforms for strengthening budget process efficiency and transparency and in particular promoting girls education.

This programme is consistent with the World Bank policy on budget support as Sierra Leone fulfills the budget prerequisite for this budget support operation.
This will help to consolidate and strengthening revenue generation and the efficiency of public expenditure.

The country intends to stabilise its micro economic frame work by implementing policy reforms aiming to boost revenue collection and to control public expenditure.

This support from the African Development Bank through institutional support as well as support from other technical financial partners would help in achieving this goal.
The total support under this programme is $22mln and it is a 100% grant.

Initially this budget support is a combination of loan and grant but due to our Government prudent fiscal discipline the loan component was converted to a grant and there are is no direct contingent liability on Government.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, be it resolved that this Honourable House ratifies the above listed Agreements which have been laid in this Noble House on the 21st May, 2019.

I thank you [Applause].


THE SPEAKER: Honourable Members, before I put the question, let me remind you that this is a new session.

And let me also say in that connection that your sitting arrangement is not guaranteed.

It depends very much on how you relate to Mr Speaker.

If you relate well, Mr Speaker might be fortunate to retain your seat, but if you do not relate well, you will become liable to some reshuffling of your sitting position.

HON.
HON.

IBRAHIM BEN KARGBO: Mr Speaker these Honourable Members are not comfortable with their sitting positions and if you remove them to more comfortable places, I will be happy.

21 THE SPEAKER: I cannot thank you more and I will most certainly accede to the request you made to make your Members even more comfortable than now.

And a lot is going to depend on how you relate to Mr Speaker.

Of course it has never been and it will never be.

[Question Proposed] HON.


DANIEL B. KOROMA: Mr Speaker, as you can see the non-participatory mood of Members of Parliament present is a clear of concerns raised earlier.

For us to prove further without intent to stifle the strides made by this Government to see things go forward.

So for members of the public I want this to be known abundantly clear that we do not want to be stumbling block to any progress been made for the benefit of Sierra Leoneans.
I will just make two points to further explain my constrain and to prove to you that I would have done better to your satisfaction if enough time was given to me may be let us say [01:08:20] but let us continue anyway.

The first is on a Guma Valley agreement if the time was given to me, but we believe in facts and figures.

When you make pronouncement you support it with facts and figures.
I would have proven to you referencing the relevant page where the Minister of Finance made specific reference to Guma Valley Water Company during the last budget presentation in the budget estimate.

That Guma Valley water Company being one of the state owned enterprises.

It is non-profit making that was what he said.


It is not profit making I would have also proven to you with facts and figures based on the records of Guma Valley Water Company, this Government owes Guma Valley Water Company the largest sum ever.

Well now you are disputing because I cannot give you facts and figures that was what I had really wanted [Undertone].

If I had had the time I would have given you facts and figures that are indisputable on yearly bases.
For this one year in governance, based on the records of the company this Government owes the company the largest sum and if it continues this way, by the time you complete your one term it would be more than other governments in office for ten years.

So my question is Mr Speaker how genuine are we in entering into loan agreements for and on behalf of Guma Valley Water Company?
How genuine are we when we are deliberately refusing to pay Guma Valley 22 Water Company according to records this Government owes the largest sum.

Secondly where will the repayment come from come?

A statement presented and read by the very Finance Minister who is now before us that Guma Valley is non-profit making.

In that document only Sierra Leone Commercial Bank was commended.

So if it is non- profit making in fact let me tell you… that is why I am constrain.
According to that document it is not even cost recovery it is below cost recovery.

It is written there loss.

So if we are to be true to ourselves, where will this money come from based on that budget estimate presented to this House by the very Minister of Finance?

That is very key, again Madam Minister I earlier said that our reasons for our objection is because we want to address the issues while your documents is being brought to this House.
We want to guide you and by way of guide Madam Minister we want Guma Valley to succeed by providing safe, affordable and consistent water supply for this city.
You are left with no option but to revert to one given to us by God since the days of Adam and Eve which is the Rokel River, this river is a gift to this capital and we on this side has the responsibility to guide and that is not out of bad faith may be others have this idea during the past Government they refused to bring it forward saying no we will not say it because if we do and they follow it they will succeed and we do not want them to succeed that is not our own style.
Our own objective is one geared towards benefiting the people generally.

You had that opportunity to guide the previous Government and you knew that if the previous Government had been guided and the idea implemented then that Government would have succeeded even better in the provision of water supply.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members we want to prove to you that we are a responsible opposition and more so in the majority; this is the voice of the majority.
Now the solution is go to the Rokel River and failing to do so will mean we will encounter this water shortage day and night.

It will not be good for you and by extension it will not be good for the people of this country and even the forest cover of the Peninsular on which Guma Valley depends on is disappearing fast and this seems to be beyond the control of any Government now.
So as a result our advice as a responsible Opposition is 23 to resort to the Rokel River but for the re-payment, Guma Valley being a non-profit making institution which always go into loss we wonder how that money could be paid.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, my next point will be on agriculture.

Agriculture based on the fifth and seventh agreements.
Mr Speaker, this is another reason why we insisted that we need time to based our debate I would have reference… if you have given us time we would have reference a portion of the maiden speech of His Excellency the President in respect of agriculture, he did say in his maiden address to this Parliament that by 2019 the criteria for the appointment of all Cabinet Ministers will be on the ownership of farms.
As we speak now how many Ministers own farms if we are to be true to ourselves, none of them or if any only few let us be true to ourselves and this is the Holy Month of Ramadan.
Because that is a brilliant idea espoused by His Excellency the President which shows how serious he is to ensure we have food security in this country, because if every Minister is to own a farm that shows how serious this Government is to address the bread and butter issue in this country but as I speak not every Cabinet Minister own a farm, not all.

HON.

MATHEW S. NYUMA: Mr Speaker point of order.


Mr Speaker we are talking about Agreements and finances and not the appointees of His Excellency, S.O 35 and S.O 32[5].

This is an agreement we are talking about.

Agreement that will better the lives of the people, so let us concentrate on the debate to the documents under question and not bring irrelevant things to this debate, what does farming have to do with the appointment of Ministers.
Let us concentrate on the agreements we have here; we have here financing agreement, grants and loans.

We have components one, component two let us talk about Guma Valley and the improvement of the infrastructural facility.

Mr Speaker S.O 32 [5] that is my point of order.

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members I know you will not listen to that because it is not worth listening.

In fact I am angry in my spirit.

HON.

MATHEW S. NYUMA: Mr Speaker point of order again.


Mr Speaker I drew your attention to S.O 32[5] let me read it.

24 THE SPEAKER: I have read it HON.

MATHEW S. NYUMA: So, can you give your ruling?

THE SPEAKER: Carry on.

Honourable Member, but try wind up please.

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Thank you very much Mr Speaker.


Mr Speaker, Honourable Members these are some of the points we have been raising and by way of guide we have proven by way of evidence even though we have not been given the time but we have proven that the current Cabinet Ministers most of them do not have farms.

We would have given you documents if we have been given time to prove that they do not but on our own side [Interruption] HON.
MATHEW S. NYUMA: Mr Speaker I rise on 32[5] again and I will read now this time.

Mr Speaker allow me to read it.

’’A member must confine his observation to the subject under discussion and may not introduce matter irrelevant thereto.’’ What has farming has to do with financing agreements, tell us.

THE SPEAKER: Honourable Acting Leader please take your seat.

Honourable Daniel try to shorten your contribution.

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Madam Minister my advice to you…[Interruption].
THE SPEAKER: Let me say this I know the Honourable Acting Leader of the Government Business very well he is really looking forward of receiving and welcoming his substantive Minister of Finance that has not happened instead we have this morning the very sweet voice of the Deputy Minister and I am sure that sweet voice mesmerized all of us in this Chamber.

Be that as it may I want to believe that the Honourable Daniel Koroma was equally mesmerized so try and shorten the rest of your contribution please.
HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members with your indulgence I want to state to the general public the meaning of I-F-A-D IFAD; it is International Fund for Agricultural Development and the fifth and seventh agreements purely centered on the activities of IFAD so I am not out of the box.
My last point… [Interruption] 25 THE SPEAKER: Honourable Member, the Deputy Leader of Government Business has rose twice to draw my attention to S.O 32[5] I remain rather reticent on that for good reason because I do see the relationship between what you are saying and agreement before us so carry on.

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Thank you.


So I last said that on our own side as Members of Parliament be it SLPP, C for C, NGC and APC unlike the Ministers who have failed to fulfill the desire of our President, we want to relay to this House that we are ready to participate in every farming activity but how?

By way of advice… [Interruption] THE SPEAKER: No.


Honourable Member you said unlike the other side I thought you were going to delved into figures now to tell me or this House the number of Members to my left who have farms, or who are in readiness to have farms or who already have farms.

HON.

DANIEL B. KOROMA: Mr Speaker to prove our readiness does not just mean that we have started we are ready to toe the line of the President.
Some of us are in farming already but we want to help the President to see how we can do it better.

THE SPEAKER: That is not my understanding you accused the other side of not having farms so I was looking forward of hearing you say the number of farms that you already have.

HON.
DANIEL B. KOROMA: Mr Speaker, Members of Parliament have farms but we are constrain that is why I want to guide this process now as the people’s representative that His Excellency during his maiden speech made strong emphasis on farming but from our own side the best way that farming activity can progress well is through mechanical farming and I am pleading with His Excellency on behalf of every Members of Parliament here that we use tractorization or mechanical farming especially for Members of Parliament if that is done then what the President has said will be evidenced in every constituency either by hire purchase or whatsoever means let Members of Parliament has access to tractors in our constituencies by way of hire- purchase by so doing it will be constitutionally bound on all Members of Parliament to 26 prove what the President has said is supported by every Member of Parliament.
If every Member of Parliament has access to tractors I believe it will be better that is my advice and please consider this possibility.

It will help to minimize the insufficiency of food at the constituency levels.

As I speak now a cup of rice in my Constituency is Le2, 000, but with a tractor we can help to minimize that one because of rough terrain we do not have access to imported rice and the local rice which is produced by subsistent farming is running out.
Now a cup of rice is Le2,000 in Nieni Chiefdom Koinadugu District, but if we have tractors we do not need imported rice you can only access imported rice by vehicular traffic but as it is now we are not.

So Mr Speaker, Honourable Members this is our position and we encourage all of you to do due diligence.

Thank you very much and God bless you.

THE SPEAKER: I thank the Honourable Member for his contribution to the Debate.

I will take two speakers one from each side of the Aisle you were the first.

HON.
HON.

MUSA FOFANAH: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members I want to thank the Ministry of Finance for the loan Agreements numbered I, II, III.

I want to register an issue to this Noble House in relation with Guma Valley.

I want to assure you that Guma Valley is constrain.
I want this House to know that Guma Valley needs a great assistance from this Noble House so that at least we can harmonize the constrain they have with the Ministry of Lands, the Ministry of Agriculture, Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], Lawyers, land owners and grabbers.
I want to us to know that Guma Valley the actual dam will collapsed if a very strong action is not taken because as a Member of the Committee of Water Resources of this Parliament we have visited the Guma Valley dam and as my learned Honourable Member was saying the deforestation around the dam is risky.
I want this Noble House to know that what we understood from Guma Valley is that they are looking for $200mln to sustain their dam and their treatment plant for the next 30 years and we do not know when this government or the country will be able to meet that demand.

We are made to understand that the land around the Guma Valley dam has been subjected to encroachment by land grabbers.
We do not know what EPA is doing, Lawyers put their stickers on the House plans and 27 at the end of the day Guma Valley do not have the right to stop those people who are doing construction on those land and I want this Noble House to know that the forest needs to be protected to keep the dam ….

[Interruption] THE SPEAKER: Okay just a moment we all appreciate the very important public interest matter you are raising.

Suspension of S.O 5[2] HON.


MUSA FOFANAH: Mr Speaker with the deforestation around the country today we have wells, borehole wells and seasonal wells.

I want to agree with my Honourable colleague that we really need to protect our rivers and explore them to get the maximum benefit.

You can agree with me that the three water projects in Kenema, Bo and Makeni from the past Government are now waiting final commissioning.
Those systems are going to continue to work but we must stop the deforestation otherwise we will have problems even with the rivers that are the sources of these projects.

So it is good for us to stop the mining in the Moa River, Sewa River etcetera.

Honestly Mr Speaker, if Ministries or Governments do not support Guma Valley to manage the wastage in this City, in the long run Freetown will continue to have water shortage.
Guma Valley of course I believe with height of the gravity, if we can protect that dam together with the reservoir that will be added will save Freetown from water problem.

And I also want to say from what we learnt, Guma Valley is spending of $100,000 a year on the treatment plant on chlorination just to purify the water before distribution.
Guma Valley will continue to have problem if Government do not take very strong measures to help them at least not only to investigate but also to have total control of the forest area.
If you go round the Peninsular you will see no forest in fact during the rains you will see the dam itself because the deforestation is growing THE SPEAKER: Honourable Member you are making a very important national point here but in your contribution can you also enlighten us about what Guma Valley itself is doing to protect its own land especially around the catchment area around the dam from further encroachment?

28 HON.

MUSA FOFANAH: Thank you very much.


Mr Speaker, Honourable Members we are made to understand that Guma Valley is constrain because there is a very serious problem between them, the Ministry of Land, the Ministry of Agriculture, EPA, Lawyers and land grabbers.

I think there is an NGO called Wealth Hunger Life.

This NGO did a green belt to stop the encroachment, but I think that green belt has expired long ago.
So that is why I want to register to this Honourable House that as a Government or as a Parliament we really have to protect that dam.

THE SPEAKER: We will certainly support any action that Guma Valley takes to protect its own interest.

We are ready to help Guma Valley but let it come up with a robust plan to satisfy this House that they have taken their responsibility very seriously.

HON.

MUSA FOFANAH: Thank you very much Mr Speaker.


My final point Mr Speaker; the regions, Kono District where I am coming from Koidu City; Kono we are still waiting, we have the Sewa River which is rich enough to give pipe-borne water in Kono District.

We have to concentrate on our Rivers laughing [Undertone] but trust me this is the only option we have.

Because of the deforestation we having our gravity system is going down.

I thank you very much Mr Speaker, God bless this Noble House.
THE SPEAKER: I will ask the two of you to negotiate between yourself.

I will only take one in the main time you have the Floor HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: Thank you very much Mr Speaker.

Before we approve loan Agreements we must have intuitive knowledge of the Ministry and see how best we could advise.

May be in other cases the loan Agreements could not be the best way out in solving their problems.

The problem in the Guma Valley Water Company is acute.
The company has reached a state in which it cannot fund its own programmes.

The tariff for water in Sierra Leone is so low to the extent that it costs Le2.50 cents.

And Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, the Monies they get [Interjected] THE SPEAKER: Le2.50 cents per what?

HON.

ABDUL KARGBO: Per Litre!

And the money they spend to sustain the water supply far exceed the money they get out of the payment from users.
So it shows from 29 every realistic point of view that they have never reached breaking point in their operations.

So meaning for whatever expansion, for whatever development they have to engage in as Guma Valley will be contingent on loan Agreements.

So I am sure this will not be the first and the last loan, let us be expecting more if corrective measures are not instituted.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, there are several water catchments in this country but I am standing here with every alacrity and confidence to tell this House that there is only one water catchment that has water as I am speaking.

All the others had dried up!

That is the Mile 13.

If this circumstances continue, I am telling you Mr Speaker in the next five years, we will be very close to draught.

We will be very close to draught in this nation!


Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I am telling you water has been taken to be a social amenity; water is not, it has to be paid for because water is an important natural resources in this country.

Let me tell you what is happening at the Quay.

When Guma Valley import, when they want to clear at the Quay they pay close to Le300mln.

When EGTC or EDSA import, they have duty waivers and they are making profit than Guma Valley.
Port would insist that Guma Valley should pay before they clear their containers at Water Quay; Port and Customs, they both insist.

When you check the archives, Port themselves owe Guma Valley Millions of Leones.

How do we expect Guma Valley to survive?

Remember Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, we are at a point in which we should try to the best of our ability to minimise external debts.
So if there is a means in which the tariff of Guma Valley will be increased to mitigate the excesses in terms of Finances they incur while supplying water to the city, we should make sure that we apply it as soon as possible.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members to round up because of time, [Undertone] the expansion at Guma Valley is very much important!

In fact with the expansion Guma Valley would be able to store enough water during the rains so that they would be able to supply it during the dries.
So the expansion to us is an excellent idea but the means through which that expansion is to be undertaken must be looked at nationalistically.

Because as I am saying if Guma Valley is left as it is, because in engineering we have what we refer to as the Law of Motion which states that ‘an object continues its state of rest or equilibrium except it is being acted upon by some external force’.
So meaning, if 30 government does not in any way increase the tariff for water in Sierra Leone then Guma Valley will be one of the channels through which our external debts will be increased, through which our teenagers will be impregnated; they have what they called ‘Wata for Wata’ S.O 2 [You come for water, I give you water].

So this is one of the reasons [Undertone] yes, yes!

I am a man of God that is why I will not go deep into it.
Those of you who are resonating with me know what I am saying and those of you who have assisted in supplying water to them know what I am saying.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, let us be keen in dealing with Guma Valley.

They are one of the government institutions that are suffering so much because of lack of finances.

Let them increase their tariff on water; we have lot of pipes in the streets that are wasting water all over the streets; even in my street.
So if keen attention is not paid to water which is in high demand, I am afraid.

And finally Mr Speaker, if I am to speak in the words of Ragger Spice I will say the water is ‘Wololo’ [Applause & Laughter].
THE SPEAKER: I Thank the Honourable Member for his contribution but quite frankly some of the points he has made, instead of looking to the Government all the time to provide the answers, Guma Valley itself as a Statutory Corporation should be able to come forward with some of the solutions that you have just mentioned.

They should be more robust than we presently see them do in administering Guma Valley.

The Management, I think should carry some responsibility here.

Ah good!
Ah good!

You have negotiated between yourselves?

Very well you have the Floor.

HON.

JOSEPH WILLIAMS-LAMIN: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I want to express my sincere thanks to the Ministry of Finance for managing the economy of Sierra Leone.

In the past session of the Fifth Parliament, my colleague, the Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Management, he indeed continuously praised our neighbours for their successful economic management.
As I speak to you Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, our neighbours are in big serious Economic mess while we are coming out of recession.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I have heard my colleagues talking about Economic Management and also talking about farming.

I spent my youthful period in both South and Northern Regions of this country.

On Saturday to be 31 specific, I went back to an area where I have never been for a long time; in Yoni Chiefdom, Mile 91.
We launched one of the biggest agricultural undertakings in the Republic of Sierra Leone; 1,200 hectares of rice and sorghum farming.

And we proceeded to Mile 91, Constituency 48 with the lead of Honourable Aaron Koroma and his Councillor, we were there in that occasion but what disappointed me most was when I heard many speakers saying ‘this is one of the most viable agricultural areas’.
I was disappointed Mr Speaker, Honourable Members because from Mile 91, off the main road to Magburaka, as we proceeded to the villages, there were no signs of agricultural activities.

And yet one thing that we have to bear in mind that is happening in Sierra Leone Mr Speaker, Honourable Members is that we always stand in the Well and talk about deforestation.

Look at the number of houses people are constructing every day in Sierra Leone.
They have spent more money in constructing houses instead of doing farming.

There is no farm in many places I have been and when we reached to that place finally I felt happy Mr Speaker, I felt peace in my mind because I saw 1, 200 hectares already cultivated and the gentleman is an individual who has been in partnership with Brewery Sierra Leone for the production of sorghum and rice farming.
They have been importing sorghum from the Netherlands costing over Le50Bln and today that gentle man went for a feasibility studies in the United States of America.

THE SPEAKER: There is absolutely no harm naming him, otherwise I could claim to be that gentleman [Laughter].

HON.

JOSEPH WILLIAMS-LAMIN: Thank you Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, that Gentle Man is called Mr Denis Jusu; he has singularly undertaken the venture with some indigenes of Mayeapoh village in Yoni Chiefdom, Constituency 48.
They have come with this initiative and they have been embraced by the Paramount chief who has given them the green light to cultivate that area.

The reason why I cited that particular event is that, I want to go to Roman figure five [v] which is talking about financing the rural economy of agriculture.
It is a very laudable thing in Sierra Leone because every now and again, during every month of Ramadan, I saw many MPs on the forum including my very self, bought imported Rice which we took to our Muslim brothers and 32 sisters.

We do not have any farming activities and there is no support for us to be doing this.

So on that note, if we have an agreement whereby our rural communities will be capacitated to do farming, I think it is a laudable venture by the Ministry of Finance.
And I hope that the actual farmers, the registered farmers who have invested their own money into this venture will be taken as top priority.

I know somebody who was proposing that they should buy tractors for them; you have to do something!

Many people are constructing houses that cost Millions, if not Billions of Leones but when it comes to agriculture, we do not want to spend our own money; we always expect Government to finance us.

If we venture in it and see, then it is good.


This is important because some of us grew up in farming communities where we talked about rice farming, cassava, cocoa, coffee etc.

You cannot say you want to be a farmer and you conditioned the Government to support you before you start the farming.

I think that is not right, you have to start before Government can chip in.
On that note Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, please Ministry of Finance, those who are going to be responsible for implementing this particular agreement please, we do not want to have huge administrative expenses on things that come to Sierra Leone.

We have learned men and women in Sierra Leone.

Let this Agreement be very economical and viable that the value for money be realised.
On this note Mr Speaker, Honourable, I want to appeal to this noble House that we quickly ratify these Agreements, thank you.

THE SPEAKER: I thank the Honourable Member for his contribution and I now call on the Acting Leader of the Opposition.

HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members of Parliament, we on this side of the House have continuously proven to the Leadership of this House and to the general public that we are dedicated to the success of this country.
Anybody who attempts to undermine our integrity and our importance is making a great error.

This explains Mr Speaker, why whenever we have occasions of this nature; the ratification of very important documents, we stand up and supports the effort itself because we see ourselves as Sierra Leoneans first and any other issue to be secondary.
But like I said Mr Speaker, the Ministry of Finance, when the time comes and it will come very soon, 33 has quite a number of questions to respond to principally because it has been the pattern; it has been the case to give the Ministry of Finance the total responsibility of handling the Finances and the Economy of this country.

And therefore once they have this responsibility, they should prove to us that they are capable and they are up to the task.
But this is not the occasion when I am going to say it but some of us are in the process of being disappointed in the manner in which the Economy is being handled.

Notwithstanding that, I congratulate Madam Minister this morning for eloquently presenting the documents which she came here to present.

To us it is important that we have intelligent and eloquent people of her type.

The various Agreements are useful and necessary to the state.
But I will warn that some of us had difficulties in handling HIPIC activities [Highly Indebted Countries] for those who do not understand.

And when you are categorised as a HIPIC country, you will run into the difficulty of not being qualified for Loans in the future.

But we also want to be very certain that the Minister made it clear this morning that the Agreements are all necessary for the development of this country.
We have spoken about Guma Valley; for those who have done some research in the areas of Geography and water and Sanitation, you will discover that when Guma Valley was established in Sierra Leone it was meant to accommodate only about three hundred thousand people.

Today we are talking about three to four Million people which means that we need to expand the Guma Valley for it to be able to accept and accommodate the present population in Freetown.
I lived very close to the Dam, some people said I had died during the Mud Slide; it was carried in the Social Media saying ‘IB Kargbo is dead’.

But I did not die [Laughter] and yet I am still close to the area where the environment is being decapitated by people who should have done better, and because we continue to decapitate the environment, the possibility of us destroying our environment and reducing the capacity of water supply do exist.
So all we can do now is that we must have a programme; a national programme to ensure that those people who destroy the environment, who decapitate the environment are stopped from doing so, especially when it is becoming a government policy and programme; when a Government Minister is saying that ‘we are going to sell Timber to people so that they can make a living’.

That Minister forgets that 34 he too is contributing to the destruction of the environment.
And some of us will stand in this Well one day and call his name and we would tell him that that is not the right thing to do.

For those of us who have some knowledge in Geography we know that you do not do that at all because you are going to destroy the environment.

But again, the fact that the Minister of Finance has negotiated a loan for the purposes of improving the Guma Valley Water facility is a clear indication that the Ministry has been thinking about the problems of Guma Valley.
I remember some time ago and Mr Speaker you were a Minister at the time, we said for us to improve water supply in this town, let us introduce meterization; to meterise the system so that people can pay for the water which they consume so that the Government can have access to money to improve on water supply in this country.

So Meterization became a policy, I remember Salia Jusu Sheriff was the Minister at that time.
But the young men in this town went and destroyed all the meters; they said ‘we would not pay for water, water is from God!’ and the Meters were destroyed so the Meterization policy did not take place.

But what worsen the situation Mr Speaker; this is why some of these Donors sometimes you do not trust them.

The BBC went on Air and said that the Government of Sierra Leone is taxing poor people for water, taxing some of the poorest people in West Africa for water and the people almost rioted on us.
So these are some of the problems.

But now the Minister is talking about giving out a loan to Guma Valley so that they can pay back.

The question is, can they pay back with their inability to generate funds?

If they cannot generate funds, simply true, I cannot see how these same people can pay debt of $120mln or whatever the case is.
But the important thing is, is a good move trying to make sure that Guma Valley stands on its feet again to us it is a very good move but the possibility I am asking is can they pay back the loan?

Taking into consideration that some Sierra Leoneans, many Sierra Leoneans in fact believe that all Government facilities are free, you do not pay!

And because everybody thinks that they are free and you do not pay, the possibility that Guma Valley can generate funds to pay back is in dispute.
I want to be assured by the Minister herself.

Mr Speaker, I was listening to the Radio this morning talking about food security; food security becomes a very important component in our Economy.

Because I keep records I know that only SAT Koroma and 35 Abass Bundu were the two Ministers who were Ministers at the time when we were able to export rice to the Gambia, which means that we really can export rice to the Gambia and to other countries.
But we must have strong Ministers to be able to provide this kind of leadership but we do not seem to have them.

So I listened to the Radio this morning and I listened to the Chinese Ambassador to Sierra Leone congratulating himself for giving us I think one hundred and twenty thousand bags of rice to feed ourselves as part of our food security programme.

Must we continue to rely on the Chinese to feed us as part of our food security programme?

No!

We have the capacity, we have the capacity!


What if the Chinese one day decide that they are not going to feed Sierra Leone again?

We have a problem here!

So when you listen to things like that and you believe that you really can produce this rice, and then you have somebody from Asia telling you that I am going to give you rice to feed yourselves and please do not forget the children; your own children, somebody must come from abroad to feed them!
I think these are some of the embarrassments we will continue to confront until we do something about it.

But again, talking about the rural component of agriculture, we should not forget the fact that our people by nature are farmers.

They are farmers by nature; all we need to do is to put the wherewithal that will make it easier for them to continue to be good farmers.

And I know that we have difficulties with the cows.
I do not want to mention the Fullahs and other people like Themnes and Limbas but they are always at each other’s throats about cows destroying farms and about people killing cows etcetera.

But these are some of the problems that we confront; the agricultural aspect of this country must be looked into very seriously.
I went to my Constituency recently and my people kept on asking the question, ‘where is the fertilizer?’ There is no fertilizer to make sure that we have effective agricultural activities in this country.

No fertilizers!

And yet I listen to the Commission of Enquiry Report and they are mentioning thousands and thousands and millions of bags of fertilizers, what happened to that fertilizer?
If we do not have fertilizer we must make sure that our people can be more productive then of course we have heard it.

So Mr Speaker, these are some of the things we are talking about.

We have nothing against the Ministry of Finance, except that we say that there are certain questions which we are going to ask later.

But since 36 they do not fall under this category at this time, we will not talk about them today but we will talk about them later on.
Mr Speaker, as I conclude, we are talking about the fiscal aspect of our economy.

The monetary policy of the state is dead!

IB Kargbo has said so.

The fiscal policy is weak!

IB Kargbo has said so.

If you have a country Mr Speaker where the fiscal policy and the monetary policies are both dead, so where do you go?
And this is why I agreed with you Mr Speaker when you said at one point that a time will come when you will begin to invite some of these people to this House so that we can ask them the necessary questions.

Look at the Dollar rate, the fiscal policies we have now where to turn, we do not know what the Minister of Finance is doing about it and simply because they do not have the answers to the very important questions of fiscal development, this is where we are today.
But we are going to ask those questions later Mr Speaker.

What we also will say is that when you talk about water, at some point you also talk about electricity.

Electricity is very important for our development, for our modernization Mr Speaker.

If you have water supply and you have a dam system that can give you electricity, then you would have improved the lives of your people.
I was shocked when I listened to a young man from Kenema complaining about the fact that electricity has collapsed in Kenema and nothing has been done to correct that irregularity.

I also almost shed tears when a man from Bo again was complaining that electricity in Bo was non-existent and he was almost pleading with the President to continue to pay them visit [Interrupted] HON.

MATHEW S. NYUMA: Mr Speaker Point of Order!

Mr Speaker we are coming from Kenema so we want to clarify that statement sir.
Mr Speaker that is not true.

Normally we are operating on a hydro system [Interrupted] HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: Mr Speaker I think I am protected HON.

MATHEW S. NYUMA: Mr Speaker Point of Order to clarify the issue sir.

Point of Order sir!

HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: Mr Speaker am I protected sir?

I am in the process of rounding up.

37 THE SPEAKER: You are fully protected but just for the edification of the general public and ourselves, the point you have made is extremely important.
For you to say there is no electricity in Bo and Kenema,[Laughter] I know, I know, I know he is not qualified, I would only allow him because he hails from that area.

HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: I just want to see the Certificate of Electricity which he has [Laughter].

THE SPEAKER: No he hails from the area that is his only qualification HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: He is a Geologist, he is not an electrician.

THE SPEAKER: No, No!

He is an MP from the area so I would listen to him.
He has no qualified qualification to argue that in terms of Kilohertz hours and so on.

But what do you want to tell us?

HON.

MATHEW S. NYUMA: Mr Speaker I am representing the people from Gbo- Kakajama Gbo-Lambayama so I want to clarify this point.

Mr Speaker, you know there is a transition always.

We are operating in the dry season, we use the Thermal Plant from Bo and during the rains we have the hydro.

So now there is a transition and there is a rotational distribution of electricity.
Now during the day, light is given eight hours for Bo and eight hours for Kenema.

And I can tell you, there is evidence to the effect that we have a new Plant and they have started working on them.

So for Electricity in Kenema it is a normal pattern; we have not changed.

During the dries, it is eight hours supply in Bo and eight hours supply in Kenema.

During the hydro period, it is twenty- four hours light.

So thank you very much.

HON.


IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: Okay Mr Speaker thank you very much, I am endeavouring to round up [Interrupted] THE SPEAKER: We will accept that only because he is an observer.

HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: He is an observer and besides I will also want to tell him that I was part of the installation of the system he is talking about.

THE SPEAKER: carry on, you carry on!

38 HON.

BASHIRU SILIKI: Point of Order please.

There is point of order for better clarification Mr Speaker.
THE SPEAKER: I am content with the clarification I have received so far.

Carry on and conclude your debate.

HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: Mr Speaker, as a state we will continue, especially from our own side, to give all the support that is necessary to the Government including the Ministry of Finance to ensure that those things that are necessary, required for the development of this country are done without difficulties.
We are talking about a whole lot of problems; we already know that we are running into difficulties raising loans here and there, negotiating loans.

Mr Speaker you know that sometimes when you go to negotiate a loan sometimes you are asked to sit outside and wait for the Director to come in.

Sometimes it is quite embarrassing!

And I know that the IDA Programme to which we have always been a party is also a good programme for us, IFAD is also a good programme for us.
But what we want to emphasise on and what we want to advice also is the fact that the Ministry of Finance which is in charge of the financial resources of this state does not over do those things that will run us into difficulties because it is important.

Now already we want to talk about generating income.

How do we generate income when we do not have the capacity to do so?

When we do not have the wherewithal to do so?

A good number of people are complaining, saying ‘tin tranga’, ‘di gron dry’ S. O 2.
‘di gron dry.’ Mr Speaker, ‘di gron dry’ has a lot to the fact that we are not be able to produce things for ourselves and because we cannot produce things to feed ourselves this is why the ‘di gron dry.’ We give the full responsibility to the Ministry of Agriculture to come up with policies and the necessary framework that will make it easy S. O 2 ‘for make di gron nor dry again.’ To us it is very important that we do so.
Like I said the last time Mr Speaker you were not happy with us when we walked outside of this House, but we did so in good faith and the public fully understand that because they are friends, most of my friends are over there and some of them are over here, but Mr Speaker we are Sierra Leoneans as well.

There are certain aspect of the life of the ordinary Sierra Leonean that should be protected.
If we 39 discover that the life of the ordinary Sierra Leonean is not protected sometimes we take some action that will remind the Government that something ought to be done and this explains why sometimes we take actions, but to us it is important like I said Mr Speaker our own side here we will continue to support the Government and its policies that does not suggest that we are giving them authority at all times.
Very soon from now power will come back to this side and when it comes back to this side you will see clearer pictures and clearer programmes believe me that is very important and because nothing was done properly to make sure that everybody was happy in this country that was the reason we walked out and we would apology to the President one day he is our friend, but the fact of the matter is that when things are done that are not consistent with the happiness of the people of this country it is our responsibility as representative of our people to make the point known to the public it is important.
As I speak I have been watched all over the country and if I tell a lie here it will be a mistake for which I will never be forgiven.

To us it is important.

Again, Madam Minister you have done very well and I did say in my introductory remarks that if it was another Minister thing will not be as easy as they are today, but it is because you are a different Minister.

When the other Minister comes, he will discover that things are not going to be as easy as they are today.

Thank you very much.


THE SPEAKER: I thank the Honourable Acting Leader of the Opposition for his very constructive contribution, the only thing please avoid making that kind of conclusion in future otherwise you are going to keep the substantive Minister of Finance away from this House.

I want him to come back I really do.

I know she comes with a sweet voice and all that, but we do need the Minister himself when necessary.

I now invite the Leader of Government Business to conclude the debates.

HON.
HON.

SIDIE M. TUNIS: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, before I actually come to the debate itself I just want to make few clarifications; firstly I wish the Honourable Acting Leader of the Opposition would have just answer the question which he asked himself that this morning he heard questions they asked on the radio about Commission of Inquiry about fertilizer [Applause].
I know as a Member of Parliament as a matter of 40 fact I was in the leadership of this Parliament in the last five years in the last Parliament and I know for sure that this Honourable House ratified several agreements for fertilizers.

The people of this country are suffering today because of lack of fertilizers because most of those fertilizers were never ever delivered [Applause].

So, I really wish the Honourable Leader of the Opposition had actually answered the question himself.
Secondly, the Honourable Leader of the Opposition also talked about the Chinese donations that by now we should be feeding ourselves.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, for over 80% of the Honourable Members of Parliament present who were not here, this Parliament ratified again under the Agriculture Committee chairmanship of the Honourable Aaron A. Koroma several loan Agreements for production, mechanical cultivation of rice in this country.
Yet, again, for five years after spending Hundreds of Millions of Dollars for agricultural activities nothing this country ever benefited from those agreements.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, these are the clarifications I wanted to make to this House for the Acting Leader of the Opposition to recall.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, coming back to the agreement itself Mr Speaker, these are concessional loan Agreements and some of them if not most are grants.
Between 1998 to 2002, I served as a Member of the Board of Directors of Guma Valley Water Company and one of the major problems that we had then was payment for water rate in our country that is why today I support the Honourable Members from the other side who are of the view that the people of Western Area; Freetown must begin to think about paying for water.
Today, we are ratifying and we as Members of Parliament represent the people of this country, we are ratifying an agreement that is going to pour money into Guma Valley Water Company.

It is therefore our responsibility again as Members of Parliament to ensure that the people of Western Area are well educated as to why they should pay for water.
I really hope that when that time comes where Guma Valley Water Company will begin to tax people to pay for water our colleagues on the other side will not politicise it that has always been the problem.
It is very important that we begin to treat water as a commodity that has to be paid for 41 otherwise we are going to find ourselves in a situation wherein even people who are giving us money today for water would not be in the position to give us money or to support Guma Valley Water Company to supply water for the Western Area.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, these loans are putting more money into the pockets of our farmers.

Whereby reducing poverty for the rural population.


These loans are definitely going to help our farmers in their agricultural production and their overall objectives.

These entire loan Agreements are to provide clean water for the people living in the Western Area and to provide more money for our farmers through access to finance for agricultural activities which will eventually reduce poverty on our people.
With those few remarks Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I call on this Honourable House to speedily approve these loan Agreements.

Thank you very much [Applause].

THE SPEAKER: I thank the Honourable Leader of Government Business.

I now call on the Deputy Minister of Finance to respond to some of the salient points made during the course of the debate.
MRS PATRICIA N. LAVERLEY: Thank you very much Mr Speaker, I like to inform this noble House that it was only 2 weeks ago that the International Monetary Fund [IMF] took the first review of our new programme under the extended credit facility that was issue to Sierra Leone.

The programme includes structural bench marks and quantitative criteria and the different measures to assess the soundness of the micro-economic framework.
The team revealed the effectiveness of our monetary policies that we have been implementing as a new Government as well as our fiscal policies.

The team went back to Washington affirming that our economic and financial reforms we have taking as a new Government over the last one year are sound and our economy is on track [Applause].

Haven said that giving the loan Agreements that have been presented today.
This shows the soundness of the balance sheet of Guma Valley Water Company as one that we inherited as a new Government.

We did not create the weak balance sheet of Guma Valley Water Company.

The loan would be issue to over four years period with a ten years grace period and if the new economic and financial policy that we are implementing, we hope that at the end of the grace period we would be able to 42 offset the loan issue to Guma Valley Water Company.
There is also a new management team at Guma Valley that is looking at the state of the current balance sheet.

There is a five-man delegation from the Kuwait Fund that is currently in town that is reviewing the current balance sheet and designing ways to support the financing gap that have been identified by the project.
Government is currently negotiating with Netherland to finance 40% of the projects using grant resources and of course all of this is happening because of the renewed confidence that our Government now has and that if this Noble House thus approved all of these loan agreements this will put us in a much better position to implement the commitments of His Excellency the President.

Thank you very much [Applause].
So, Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I now move that the following agreements be ratify by this Noble House: [i] Loan Agreement between the Government of Sierra Leone and the African Development Fund on the Freetown Water and Sanitation [Wash] and Aquatic Environment Revamping Project, Dated 18th January, 2018; [ii] Protocol of Agreement between the Republic of Sierra Leone and the African Development Fund on the Freetown Wash and Aquatic Environment Revamping Project, Dated 18th January, 2018; [iii] Subsidiary Grant Agreement between the Government of Sierra Leone Represented by the Ministry of Finance and Guma Valley Water Company, Dated 29th March 2019; [iv] Subsidiary Loan Agreement between the Government of Sierra Leone and Guma Valley Water Company, Dated 29th March, 2019; [V] Financing Agreement on Rural Finance and Community Improvement Programme- Phase II [RFCIP 2] between the Republic of Sierra Leone and the International Fund For Agricultural Development, Dated 22nd November, 2018; [vi] Financing Agreement on the Financial Inclusion Project between the Republic of Sierra Leone and the International Development Association Dated 27th February 2019.
43 [vii] Financial Agreement - Agriculture Value-Chain Development Project [AVDP] Between the Republic of Sierra Leone and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, Dated 1st January, 2019; and [viii] Protocol of Agreement amongst the Republic of Sierra Leone, the African Development Bank and African Development Fund as Administrators of the Transition Support Facility for the Fiscal Consolidation Support Programme, Dated 29th April, 2019.

Thank you very much.


THE SPEAKER: I thank the Honourable Deputy Minister of Finance.
[Question Proposed, Put and Agreed To] [Government Motion by the Minister of Finance has been ratified] THE SPEAKER: Honourable Members as you very well know whether by way of invitation that you may have received or on the media it is proposed to convene a national conference to address the thorny issue before this nation particularly the issue relating to integration of the entire component of our societal peace and good governance, peace and stability in our country, peace and inclusiveness of our society and that conference which has been dubbed BINTUMANI 3 is due to commence on the 23th of this month.
We have in our midst the Minister for Political and Public Affairs who has kindly requested that we grant him audience to come and enlighten us a little bit more about what is been planned by that Ministry in the course of the conference.

I will therefore with your indulgence grant him about ten minutes on this very important matter of the national conference, for national collusion and integration and how to rebuild this nation.
The debate is not taking place here the debate is going to take place in the Bintumani arena.

So, Mr Minister you have the Floor [Applause].

[Undertones] I am craving your indulgence that you hear him out of courtesy, we usually do extend courtesies to visiting personalities when they come to this House and the Minister of Political and Public Affairs is no exception.

MR AMARA KALLON [Minister of Political and Public Affairs]: Thank you Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members of Parliament, distinguished ladies and 44 gentlemen, first let me extend my sincere thanks and appreciation to Mr Speaker and Honourable Members of Parliament for granting me the privilege to address Members of Parliament in the Well of Parliament, but what I can say is not a misplaced privilege as I considered myself one of them because I was privileged about two decades ago to take the oath to become a member of this House.
I am indeed delighted to brief Honourable Members on the status of the proposed national dialogue forum, which has been dubbed “Bintumani 3” with the theme: democratic consolidation for peace and national cohesion in Sierra Leone.

Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, peace and national cohesion is a continuing process, governance is a continuing process.
What we are about to do at Bintumani 3 is nothing new, but a continuation of the process that was initiated and begun after the war by former President Alhaji Ahmed Tejan Kabba [of blessed memory] and the process continued by the former Government which was led by former President Honourable Ernest Bai Koroma.

It is a continuation of the process so as I say it is not the beginning, it is a continuation and we intend to continue with that process.
So, Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, His Excellency the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone Retired Brigadier Julius Maada Bio in his vision to achieve sustainable peace and national cohesion in our country.
During the State Opening of Parliament on the 10th May, 2018 said;”Mr Speaker, to promote unity and national cohesion my Government will launch a presidential initiative that will be heralded by a national conference on peace building, diversity management and rebuilding of national cohesion, I therefore announce the creation of an Independent Commission for Peace and National cohesion to be established by an Act of Parliament.” In respond to His Excellency declaration a green paper was developed by the Office of the Chief Minister and presented to His Excellency the President to re-seek his permission and advice that will serve as a bench-mark during the process.
As I have earlier said, the promotion of peace and national cohesion is a process that is not just beginning now, as a nation we are continuing.
Following His Excellency’s approval and positive advice on the conduct of the process the Ministry of Political and Public Affairs in collaboration of the Office of the Chief Minister, the Department of Peace and Conflicts Studies Fourah Bay College, the Africa Peer Review 45 mechanism, Civil Society, the Media and representatives from various political parties on Friday 23rd March, 2019 undertook nationwide consultative meetings to inform the people of the President’s declaration and also sought the views of Sierra Leoneans on the intention to hold a national dialogue forum with the view of setting up the peace and National Cohesion Commission.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members of Parliament, the purpose of the national consultations was to seek the voices, views and opinions of the citizenry on strategic issues to be included in the designed agenda for a national dialogue forum on democratic consolidations and the establishment of the Peace and National Cohesion Commission in Sierra Leone.
Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, finally I think I was allocated ten minutes, but as best as possible I have passed on the information and I will try as best as possible Mr Speaker to do less than five minutes.

Mr Speaker, distinguished ladies and gentleman, let me take this opportunity to thank all of our esteemed Members of Parliament, who participated on the national consultations, while looking forward to receiving you at the national dialogue forum on 23rd May, 2019.

I thank you Mr Speaker [Applause].


THE SPEAKER: I thank the Honourable Minister of Political and Public Affairs; I thank him especially for a very judicious use of the time that I allocated to him.

Announcement, by the Leader of Government Business.

HON.

SIDIE M. TUNIS: Mr Speaker, Honourable Members, I want to inform Honourable Members that tomorrow 11:00 a.m. there will be a pre-legislative hearing on the Bill entitled; Borrowers and Lenders Bill, 2019.
And at the next adjourned sitting we will be looking at that particular Bill the Borrowers and Lenders Bill 2019 and also there will be a report of the Appointment Committee.

So, Honourable Members I encouraged you to please look at the Bill, it has been distributed in fact just about a month ago because they distributed those Bills just about a week before the State Opening of Parliament.

You have not yet received yours Honourable Ibrahim Ben Kargbo?

46 HON.
46 HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: Mr Speaker, I listen with rapt attention to the very brief presentation made by my friend on the other side, but I will just plead with you Mr Speaker, that we should not exploit the good will of our Members here.

This fellow travelled from Kabala to Freetown this morning and tomorrow again we have the pre- legislative hearing and now we are talking about yet another session.
Could you be very clear about the time table so that our Members can have access so they can cooperate because we are beginning to become very tired.

Thank you Sir.

HON.

SIDIE M. TUNIS: Mr Speaker, I agree with Honourable Ibrahim Ben Kargbo, but everything that is happening here has been discussed with him in particular, I have not had access to all the Members of Parliament, but I am in contact with Acting Leader of the Opposition on a daily bases if not on hourly bases.
The Honourable Leader of Opposition and we were together for over two hours yesterday and this morning again.

So, I did not understand what he is talking about.

HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: You and myself…….. [Interruption].

HON.

SIDIE M. TUNIS: Honourable Leader please in future after our discussion please relates to your membership, thank you very much.

HON.
HON.

IBRAHIM B. KARGBO: Mr Speaker, the Honourable Leader of Government Business should have told you that our meeting yesterday was a social issue which has nothing to do with the deliberations of this House.

Again we will continue to discuss our social discussion after here, thank you.
THE CLERK: The Leader wants it to be known that plenary sittings of Parliament supersede all other meetings and therefore Committees should strictly adhere to this procedure that whenever there is a plenary sittings of Parliament there should be no other meetings until the conclusion of that particular sitting.

The second information I want to pass is that at exactly 1:45 p.m. today we encouraged all Member of Parliament present to see me in my office [Undertone] yes the smaller office please.
I thank you.

47 THE SPEAKER: Honourable Members will recall that on the 2nd May, 2019 during the State Opening of Parliament I adjourned Parliament to the 27th May, 2019 that adjournment stands.

The reason for convening this Parliament was done on an emergency bases and at the specific request by the Minister of Finance and I want to thank all of you for having acceded to the request to come and attend this meeting.
[The House rose at 1:20 p.m. and was adjourned to Monday 27th May, 2019 at ADJOURNMENT 10:00a.m.]

48