Abdul Fatoma: Sierra Leone Telegraph: 27 July 2018:
Over the course of the past two years, the Campaign for Human Rights and Development International (CHRDI), has successfully focused its efforts on holding public institutions accountable.
CHRDI believes that public accountability is integral to a comprehensive approach in the management and delivery of public services.
We at CHRDI know that accountability and transparency are support systems for success in any society. We are equally aware that in a democratic society like Sierra Leone, accountability to the public by its elected representatives is vital because policies will not be made by officials with little or no connection to the public.
Our flagship campaign – the Accountability Campaign, successfully raised public awareness around the Constituency Development Fund and the administration and operations of the Parliament of Sierra Leone. (Photo: CHRDI CEO – Abdul Fatoma).
The campaign also implored citizens to ask their Parliamentarians to give account of their stewardship and all monies received for and on their behalf in 2012 to 2016.
Today, we are pleased to report that members of Parliament are now unanimous in their request for the Constituency Development Fund to be dissolved.
The echoes of how successful our campaign was cannot be overemphasised. And although we thank the new Parliament for their brave decision, we would like to remind parliamentarians of their duty to ensure closure is brought to monies received by the previous Parliament and for which we believe, over 120 billion Leones, still needs to be accounted for.
We shall reiterate the call for a payback in kind, based on our initial arguments, as stated in our
8 august 2016 – press release: ‘Parliament must not fail to account to the general populace on parliamentary expenditure’.
About CHRDI
Campaign for Human Rights and Development International (CHRDI ) is a Rights based Public social-policy advocacy Organisation. We Draw attention to the responsibility of duty-bearers to uphold human rights, and seek to support rights-holders to claim their rights. CHRDI is in Special Consultative Status to the United Nations Economic and Social Council and accredited to many UN Agencies.
Some of us are not very hopeful in this current Parliament performing its functions well. It was very disappointing to see that when the appointed High Commissioner to Nigeria was before the appointments committee, our Honourable members instead of asking serious questions, spent their time making fools of themselves – asking irrelevant questions that bear nothing to the assignment.
The only sensible question came from Kandeh Yumkella. What a disgrace and waste of taxpayers money.