KAMPALA — Sierra Leone will not take part in this year’s Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference underway in Kampala, Uganda, officials have confirmed.
According to CPA Secretariat, the suspension emanated from the failure of the Sierra Leone Parliament from paying its annual subscription fees for 2019.
The country’s Speaker of Parliament, Dr. Abass Bundu has also confirmed to the Sierra Leone House on Monday.
In his submission, one of the vocal parliamentarian Ibrahim Tawa Conteh of Constituency 132 said the news of the suspension from the Speaker is not good for the country’s national and international image.
Parliamentarian Tawa Conteh disclosed that Parliament has so far spent 2.8 billion Leones on daily sustenance allowances and over 1 billion Leones on airline tickets for overseas travelling.
MP Tawa added that the CPA is very important for the country to be part of and the country should be able to meet its obligation especially after Parliament had received 16.5 billion Leones from the Ministry of Finance as budgetary allocation.
Meanwhile, CPC has kicked off on Monday morning at the Speke Resort, Munyonyo, 52 years after Uganda hosted the Conference.
It started with closed door meetings of the CPA regional secretaries, the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) steering committee, CPA small branches steering committee and the governance review working group.
Issues lined up for open discussion are the importance of monitoring of new parliamentarians and promotion of women to leadership positions and senior port-folios.
20 Speakers and Deputy Speakers of National and provincial Parliaments as well as delegates from various countries are attending the Conference.
The Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga and Prime Minister Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda recieved the delegates at the Entebbe Airport on Sunday.
Kadaga is the CPC designate president.
