Hon Alagie Mbowe, Deputy Chair of the Committee, said they would write to the Judicial Secretary, and the Chief Justice, because “their actions today are tantamount to contempt” of the National Assembly.
“We must send a very strong warning to the judiciary to ensure that when they are called to the Parliament to present their reports, they need to abide. However, if they have an issue to be present, they need to notify us in advance before we bring members to sit in vain,” the FPAC deputy chair said.
Hon. Mbowe further recalled that the institution had defied their resolution in 2023, and “this will count as second time they are defying” their call.
He also revealed that the institution has not submitted a report to the assembly for ten years.
Part of the letter that will be sent to the judiciary would indicate timelines for the submission of reports, he clarified. “That is the accounts of 2011 to 2019 be submitted to the Attorney General of Audits within 90 days from today, and the accounts of 2020 to 2023 be submitted within 6 months from today.”
He said further: “The judiciary is expected to be here and they have been notified and aware. The team’s absence can be contempt of the National Assembly.”
He said the parliament had schedules they had communicated to the executive and the judiciary “and everyone has a date that you need to be here to present your activity and financial statements but they failed to do so”.
Lamin E. Manneh, the Clerk of the Committee, said he communicated with the judiciary and did a follow-up to remind them that they were supposed to be in parliament. “Initially I was given the impression that they were not aware of being present before the committee; when I pressed further they then said they received a correspondent but according to that correspondent they were supposed to appear April 24th not 18th, the clerk said.
He also said he was sent a screenshot of the correspondence. “I then said the schedule I sent to you was not read properly because on the 18th is what’s written on it.”
He expatiated: “This morning I called one of the officials - the one I have been communicating with all this while - to remind him that they should be here. However, he said he was going to call me back, which he did not. I later sent him a WhatsApp message as well but he did not respond, and that was when I informed the committee that ‘the judiciary is not showing up’.”
