Samuel Kallon 
By Ragan M. Conteh
The Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone on Wednesday 31st January 2024 faced the Parliamentary Account Committee (PAC) scrutiny at the Speaker’s Conference room in Parliament.
The engagement with the Bank officials is part of the PAC’s work for transparency and accountability in managing the country’s resources and to know how Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) are working towards improving the lives of Sierra Leoneans.
Admonishing the officials from the Bank of Sierra Leone, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, who also doubled as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Account Committee (PAC) in Parliament, Hon Sengepoh Solomon Thomas, said in facing the committee MDAs should avoid what Parliament referred to as “perjury or contempt” of Parliament, which means that they should speak the truth while facing Parliamentarians.
The engagement is also to probe into the activities of the Bank of Sierra Leone, to know their deliverables as well as challenges in managing the economy or the country finances in the last years.
During the engagement, the Bank Governor, Dr. Ibrahim Stevens, highlighted activities that the Bank undertook and those that are ongoing.
The Bank Governor Dr Stevens confirmed that the Bank of Sierra Leone has a vault in Freetown and in Kenema, which contains the new Leones.
Dr Ibrahim Stevens told the PAC that they had worked very hard to ensuring that the use of old Leones becomes an history in Sierra Leone.
He further stated that the Bank would continue to work hard to see that there will be no old Leones in circulation.
He however, thanked the PAC for their great tasks exhibited in Parliament and for collaborating to ensuring that talks on using the new Leones become the helm of affairs.
Dr Stevens said, the Bank of Sierra Leone, is an institution that is not established to make profits, but to perform public functions.
He maintained that during the COVID-19,, they recorded huge losses, and that the economy was challenged while the people were not taking their monies into the banks.
A member of the PAC Committee, Hon Dickson Rogers, repeated what the Bank Governor had said saying that it is the fact for the refusal of people to deposit their monies in the banks during COVID-19.
Hon Rogers added that when he made a visit to America during the COVID-19, he discovered that there were no commodities on the shelves in the Banks of America.
