Samuel Kallon 
By Ragan M Conteh
The Deputy Speaker of the House of Parliament who doubles as the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, (PAC), Hon. Ibrahim Tawa Conteh, has accused and blamed the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Food Security (MAFSS).
He accused the institution of failing former President Ernest Bai Koroma’s regime and the Bio administration.
He said both regimes have been supplying tractors to the Ministry of Agriculture but their purposes were never served.
Hon. Conteh said even when the two administrations had been doing their best to improve the agriculture sector the ministry has been doing the opposite.
Hon. Conteh made the statement on Monday 24th June, 2024 at the New Administrative Building in the House of Parliament when the ministry was updating the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on how they have been utilizing funds being disbursed to them by the Government of Sierra Leone for the past years.
The Deputy Speaker said it is sad that MAFFS has been frustrating the efforts of several successive governments.
He confirmed that president Bio, once, had given the ministry 4,010 tractors, but nothing good ever comes out of it.
The Deputy Speaker blamed MAFSS for tolerating Government machinery operators for not paying a penny into the Machinery Account at Sierra Leone Commercial Bank (SLCB) since the past three years it was opened.
However, Hon. Speaker said MAFFS is still paying the operators even though they have not been fulfilling their own liabilities to the government of Sierra Leone.
The machines, Hon. Conteh, said were given by the government of Sierra Leone to the machinery operators, but he noted that most of them are not in good use.
The deputy speaker said the only thing they can do is to recover the monies from them.
Hon. Tawa Conteh stated that the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Food Security has a lot of loopholes to address as indicated in the 2022 Auditor General’s Report.
It was also revealed that MAFFS is in the habit of conspiring with contractors by paying them some huge amounts of monies but without the contractors doing any work.
