Asked to Return to Assembly to Update FPAC onProbe in Mismanaged Covid Funds
By: Arret Jatta
The Inspector General of Police(IGP), Seedy M. Touray, on Wednesday appeared before the Finance and Public Accounts Committee (FPAC) of the National Assembly to throw light on the investigation into the squandered Covid-19 funds but he had been rescheduled to reappear before the committee on 23 October 2024, because he was ill-prepared as he’d thought his parliamentary appearance bordered on the ongoing parliamentary inquiry into the US$30M Russian oil saga.
“I appear to testify in the petroleum investigation. I mistook the session for the petroleum enquiry. Therefore, I did not come prepared to give update on this issue [mismanaged Covid funds],” he told FPAC yesterday.
FPAC rescheduled the police chief to update the committee on the National Assembly resolutions on the mismanaged funds, which were reportedly released on the 14th and 18th of September 2023, respectively.
IGP Touray was tasked to update the legislature on the status of the investigation as at 30 September 2024.
However, he claimed during his brief appearance before FPAC that he confounded FPAC with the Assembly’s Joint Committee on the Petroleum Inquiry.
Mr. Touray then requested to be given time to reappear before the committee on or 31st December to update it on the probe but the chair of the committee, Alagie S. Darboe put it to him that the Third Ordinary Session would have ended by then and that FPAC needs to submit to the plenary the outcome of the committee session and therefore, the committee cannot grant him the requested date.
FPAC then agreed to give the IGP a week to reappear before the committee because it believed a lot of work have been done on these resolutions “because the police were eager to commence the investigation and if he [IGP] checks in the records, he will realize[that] about 90% of the work is done.”
In response, IGP Touray underscored that the date these resolutions were released, hewas not occupying the position.
“We crave for your understanding and indulgence to come back and give adequate information because we do not want to discuss something we are not on top of,” he added.
“We wrote to the police for them to act on pending matters in the resolutions. The timeline given to the institution was 25th September. We should receive communication from the police whether they can furnish us with information that they are supposed to act on,” replied FPAC chair.
“Meanwhile, what we have done is that we communicated to the police. After completion of that exercise, then the police also wrote back for clarification on how they should go about the investigation. That was when we wrote back on the 6th of December, attaching the updates and the action points from the respective institution that are outstanding and the ones that we are expecting to mount an investigation on,” Darboe explained.
“We were expecting from that date; 6th December, 2023, until about three months the IGP is supposed to give feedback. However, we scheduled the IGP for update on the investigation when Assembly was not on any session either committee or ordinary sessions. Unfortunately, that day was cancelled at the table of the NA because the NA had another engagement, where all the members of the committee and other committees are involved and we can only meet when we have committee session.We want the IGP to give us update on the resolutions released on 14th September, 2023, and 18th September, 2023.”