By Sulaiman Aruna Sesay
The Chief Immigration Officer of Sierra Leone faced intense scrutiny from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in parliament responsible to investigate issues captured on the Auditor’s General Report 2022 conducted by Audit Service Sierra Leone.
During a recent parliamentary hearing held on Friday 14 June 2024, the Chief Immigration Officer was asked to explain why the office has been struggling to hire and retain qualified staff. According to the chairman of PAC, who doubles as the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Ibrahim Tawa Conteh, there are Five Hundred and Thirty-nine (539) staff shorting at the Sierra Leone Immigration Department quoting directly from the Auditor’s General Report 2022.
In his response, the Chief Immigration Officer, Hon. Alusine Kannah, clearly stated that, little attention has been paid to the Sierra Leone Immigration Department since he took over from his predecessor. He said, under his leadership, they have recruited Hundred (100) staff and they are working hard to recruit more staff. The CIO admitted that, before his appointment, market women were at the immigration department dealing with passport application. He also mentioned, there were so many volunteers and those volunteers were engaged in illegal activities. Under his administration, some of those volunteers have been employed to permanent staff of the immigration. The Sierra Leone Immigration is more operational institution than passport and people have been focusing more on passport.
According to the Director of Administration, Michael Baion, they are not just recruiting without seeking concurrence from the Ministry of Finance. He further explained, the intervention of Ministry of Finance helped in the recruitment of 100 staff. “Intensive training is conducted for those recruited staff,” he said. He revealed, there are critical vacancies available at the Sierra Leone Immigration Department.
