The council was scheduled to appear for the presentation and consideration of their activity report and financial statement of the period 2020-2021 last Thursday. However, the engagement could not proceed due to the absence of the council’s chairman.
Alagie S.Darboe, chairman of the committee, emphasised that the session couldn’t proceed in the absence of the chairman.
“We noted that he is new in the system and perhaps he is not familiar with parliament procedures and that is why we’ve given him a warning that anytime the parliament calls, priority should be given to the parliament.”
Hon Darboe started that ‘if he (chairman) has any genuine issues that he might not be able to make it to any scheduled meeting, it should be communicated to the committee earlier.
“When the board or the council is not represented, the meeting cannot proceed.We don’t want this situation to be repeated again and that’s why we are giving him a warning to always try to abide by the parliamentary rules.” he added.
The council was supposed to appear yesterday according to the schedule of the the National Assembly committees work plan, but according to Sainabou Martin Sonko, Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of Kerewan Area Council, they were not aware that they were supposed to appear before the committee on the said day.
“We received the letter, but it was an oversight from my end. It’s yesterday that my attention was called that we should appear before the committee and I was referred to the National Assembly CEO WhatsApp group chat to look at the notification and I confirmed that it was actually sent in the group since the 10th. That was the time I arranged to get the team over here including the chairman; unfortunately, the chairman couldn’t make it here and he sends his apology.” She informed the committee.
She said her chairman received the information from her very late by then he (Chairman) was on his to way to Basse for the GALGA meeting, which was later cancelled.
However, the committee agreed to reschedule their engagement to the 26th February 2024, at 12 noon for both the presentation and the consideration of the period under review.
