The Member of Parliament from Kambia District, Hon Abdul Karim Kamara (AKK), has urged the Deputy Speaker of Parliament who also doubles as the Chairman of the Public Accounts   Committee (PAC) to allow them as members in the House of Representatives to debate on the 2022 Audit Service Report.

According to Hon AKK, the Audit Service Report has been laid in the well of Parliament for some times last year and it is prudent for MPs to scrutinize and brought culprits in the public domain.

The Kambia MP made the clarion call on Thursday 18 January 2024 in the Chambers of Parliament.

He noted that, in the 2022 Audit Report, some billions of old Leones had gone missing and is very bad for us as a nation, he said.

Hon AKK adds that MPs are not vote controllers they are politicians, noting that Permanent Sectaries (PS).

The MP informed the Deputy Speaker that when these issues are usually raised up, as politicians, they faced the embracement from their people.

In his response, the Deputy Speaker who serves as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee in Parliament, Hon Senepoh Solomon Thomas, said the Audit Report could not be debated until the Public Accounts Committee looked into the concerns raised in the documents.

He went on that as a Committee it would make its own investigations and present it to the whole House for further debates.

Hon Thomas also lamented that, issues raised in the Audit Report are mere opinions, adding that the PAC is the Committee that can determine the facts from the Audit Service Report and that is after PAC’s investigation of those responsible.

The Leader of Government Business in the House of Parliament, Hon Matthew Sahr Nyuma, has stated that “Why do you always want to politically ‘weaponize’ the Auditor General’s report (AGs)? Wait after the verification of the PAC’s report and then parliament will debate the AGs report.

Hon Nyuma said parliament deals with facts, and that Standing Orders 70,6,d supports this view.

But challenging that it’s the opposition that should be chairing the Public Account Committee, and he stressed that the AG’s report is about expressing facts and opinions.

The Leader of Opposition, Hon Abdul Kargbo, fumed,  “It does not mean that if this House has been doing what is not lawful, it should continue to do so. Debating on the documents will add more accountability and transparency”.