Sierra Leone’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has heeded a public call and invited two top officials of the country’s parliament on suspicion of involvement in corrupt activities.
Lawmaker Ibrahim Tawa Conteh and Parliamentary Clerk Umar Paran Tarawally sparked a huge public outcry after they accused each other of involvement in unspecified corrupt acts on a live radio discussion programme.
The two men who belong to the same party – the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) – were invited after discussions on their diverging positions on the controversial 2020 Finance Act.
Conteh is reported to have broken ranks with his fellow SLPP members in the House and openly spoke against a controversial provision in the Act which gives the President, Vice President and Speaker carte blanche in the spending to tax payers’ money while on international travels.
In the radio discussion on the popular breakfast show on Freetown’s Radio Democracy, both men reportedly insinuated that the other one did something they didn’t specify.
An online petition was mounted seeking to urge the Anti-Corruption Commission to mount an investigation to ascertain the veracity of the insinuations.
An ACC spokesman, Abubakarr Turay, told APA on Saturday that they Commission officially invited the men at the end of the week and that they were expected to report on Monday.
KC/abj/APA