By J. Saccoh Kai-Lewis
With the reported return of the former disgraced Clerk of Parliament, Umar Paran Tarawally, back to his position, enquiring minds want to know what will happen when the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the House gets to query people in Parliament on how they had spent public money.
How will the best performing House committee, the PAC, deal with one of their own in light of how they have been querying others not limited to the SLRSA, Ministries of Land and Agriculture, and Sierra Leone Commercial Bank? And what message has the president and the ACC sent to the public about the seriousness of this government’s anticorruption fight?
It was a case that caught the imagination of the entire society, especially as it involves someone at the level of the Clerk of the House of Parliament. For a young man in his 30s, Umar Paran Tarawally rose quickly through the ranks of Parliament to the third position after the Speaker and Deputy Speaker. Rumour had it that if it wasn’t for his unexpected fall from grace he would have been one of the heirs apparent in the ruling party hierarchy after the president makes his expected exit from State House.
A source at the House of Parliament said that Paran Tarawally got carried away and abused his position and office by committing the cardinal sin in government: corruption by providing an advantage. According to our parliamentary source, the president sees corruption as not only a betrayal of his cause but also a betrayal of the poor people of the country. To his disservice the Clerk of Parliament abused the power conferred on him by his position in the hiring of his wife Abibatu Paran Tarawally for a position she never showed up to work for while receiving monthly salary from September 2021 to March 2023.
In total Abibatu received NLe156, 423 (156 million old leones) for the period of ten months she received salary, according to the Accountant General’s office.
Taking a lacklustre stab at the matter, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) said Paran’s case involves conflict of interest and abuse of position. During the ACC investigation and on condition of her bail Abibatu Paran Tarawally returned NLe131, 000 (131 million old leones) from the NLe156, 000 (156 million old leones) she earned while never once showing up for work. Both the Clerk and his wife were on bail pending further ACC investigation into the matter based on an ACC press release dated 14 January, 2024.
Meanwhile the CARL citizen perception survey on the most corrupt government institutions named the House of Parliament as one of the most corrupt public institutions. According to citizens that spoke to this medium the Clerk of Parliament’s crime pales in comparison to what allegedly obtains at the House, although the Clerk didn’t help the image by what he did. Sierra Leoneans that spoke to FORUM said by his action the Parliamentary Clerk sullied the good image and reputation the Sixth House has been trying to carve out.
But the one hundred and fifty six million old Leones questions remain: Why wasn’t the Clerk prosecuted? What will happen when the PAC gets to query Parliament on the 2022 Auditor General’s Report? And, why did the president reinstate the disgraced Clerk?
“The Clerk was not prosecuted because the focus of the ACC is not on the big fishes in the SLPP government but on smaller fishes like people below grade 3 who get arrested and prosecuted for giving and receiving an advantage. Fat fishes like Umar Paran Tarawally the reinstated Clerk of Parliament is too high up the SLPP party hierarchy for the ACC to jail him or take him to court. He will get the same treatment as others the ACC has exonerated. People like Paran Tarawally go scot free once they admit their guilt and pay a small fine,” said our parliamentary source.
Meanwhile corruption is not being seen by the public as being fought on an even playing field. They see bias in the work of the ACC for going against former government employees under the Ernest Bai Koroma or APC led government with the ferocity of a mastiff while they treat SLPP government related people with kid’s gloves.
“From the case of the Chinese computers donated to the Covid19 team and the recent and very public exoneration of the SLCB managing director, and now Clerk of Parliament Paran Tarawally and his wife Abibatu Paran Tarawally, what the ACC is doing is putting a serious dent in the people’s confidence and also in our government’s financial sponsors that we will tackle corruption effectively no matter who is found wanting on the scales of justice. The hope is that once corrupt monies and properties are recovered the proceeds will go to address the people’s pressing issues as public monies are intended for,” said one of our parliamentary sources.
With the way they have exemplified and set themselves apart from the Fifth Parliament, the Public Accounts Committee of the Sixth Parliament is expected to soon be under great pressure, when they get to query public accounts at the House and how they were expended by vote controllers.
“Despite that Paran has obviously embarrassed the president we see that he has been reinstated. And under the PR system of election, the people voted for the party and not the candidate, hence the party can remove an MP from the House, but we see in this case Paran the Clerk is still in Parliament. The president has sent a very confusing message: is he no longer focused on the anticorruption, financial leakages campaign now that he has Feed Salone and Human Capital Development? But what will happen to Feed Salone and the other plans in the light of how people spend government money in ways they aren’t intended? The president should not recycle people like Paran back into the system if he expects anyone to take the anticorruption fight serious. But the ball is now in the court of the PAC,” said our source.
With his action that has brought the image and reputation of the Honourable House of Parliament into disrepute concerned Sierra Leoneans are calling on the Chairman of the PAC who also doubles as the Speaker of the House to set a good example when they get to query how money was spent in Parliament during 2022 as the case of Umar Paran Tarawally hiring his wife without due process for a job she never showed up for but received monthly salaries covered September 2021 to March 2023, before, during and after the financial year under review.
“We trust that the PAC acting as a High Court will do the right thing where the ACC and the president have failed and set a great example with one of their own by having him jailed for what he did to the people’s money in a country where people find it so hard to get a job, even college graduates, for someone to then get a job unfairly and still not show up but receive salaries on top of all that? And all this was orchestrated by the Clerk of Parliament and his wife? Something must be done, Mr PAC Chairman and Deputy Speaker! The corruption fight must be seen as being done and done to the fullest extent of the law,” an incensed college student implored the leadership of Parliament.
