By: Thaimu Bai Sesay
The Clerk of Parliament Paran Umar Tarawally has on Wednesday 11 October 2023 in an interview confirmed that the Sixth Parliament of the Second Republic of Sierra Leone would be expecting a new constitution and other policies and bills of state.
“We would continue running Parliament and consider very important policies and bills of state, including the new constitution which Parliament would be expecting soon, and Parliament would look at it because it has the responsibility to look at the constitution and review it and send it to the people for referendum”, Paran reiterated.
With a total of 149 Members of Parliament including 125 Ordinary Members and 14 Paramount Chiefs the Clerk of Parliament recalled that the Sixth Parliament commenced on the 13 of July 2023 and run unto to 18 of August 2023 with a short break, and assured that the Parliament would resume tomorrow 12 October 2023.
In his honest opinion Paran expressed that he didn’t feel good seeing just one Member of Parliament from the opposition after declaring over 50 members of parliament elected by the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone.
“As Clerk of Parliament, I want to reiterate that I didn’t feel good for seeing MPs abrogating the responsibility given to them by the people and that is a disservice to the nation,” he sets forth.
As part of his responsibilities to ensure that all MPs elect are well seated, the Clerk of Parliament intimated that he reach out to the Members of Parliament boycotting the Parliament and affirmed that they had a conversation.
“Hon Thompson did not boycott Parliament. He had a legitimate excuse which I later confirmed in my email and that was after swearing him as a Member of Parliament. That made him to come forward and he is a legitimate Member of Parliament,” Parliament Clerk admitted.
In the interview, he intimated that the Parliamentary sessions of the Sixth Parliament would have to run unto July 2024 to complete its first year saying the year started right from the first day of parliamentary seating. Paran said from today unto December which is the end of the annual year that they would be expecting to lay a lot of documents.
“We would be laying a report from the Bank of Sierra Leone on the status of the currency in the country to the Auditor General’s report that would be equally laid. Then we would be approving a host of nominees including ambassadors,” Paran intimated.
As lot of people would be cheering up their loved ones for being nominated and sailing through Parliament, the Clerk assured that the Sixth Parliament would entirely be different in terms of decorum and discipline. He recalled that the Fifth Parliament encountered a lot of security threats despite their proactive measures based on the notion that it is the peoples house. “Being the people’s house doesn’t give you the leverage to come to parliament uninvited. The people would have to inform us now and we would have to authorize their visit by giving them an identification slip,” Parliament Clerk emphasized.
The Clerk further emphasized that the resumption of the Sixth Parliament would be having a very big activity which he described as the Budget, adding that passing the budget act would be a very big activity of Parliament. “From the day the Minister would be carrying the budget to all the other processes that we would have to pass through until December 22nd when we would be finally passing the budget for the year 2024. That would be the core activity at Parliament.
The Hon. Clerk of Parliament, Paran Umar Tarawally expressed his anticipation to seeing all the Members of Parliament including the All People’s Congress MPs elect. He however said that the Parliament would still continue running as it would equally consider all the relevant policies and bills of state including the new constitution he said Parliament would soon expect.
