By Kebba AF Touray
The Director General of the Public Utilities and Regulatory Authority (PURA), Momodou Jallow, Thursday informed the National Assembly Public Enterprise Committee (PEC) that they have some problems with printing of their activity reports and financial statements for submission to Parliamentarians.
Mr. Jallow apologized to the select committee on behalf of the board of the authority for their failure to appear, attributing it to internal failure.
“I would like to assure the committee that if we are given the opportunity, we would submit the reports because they are currently with the printer and will be due for submission early next week,” he said on 28th January 2021 when PURA appeared before PEC after the authority was re-summoned to present its reports.
PURA Board expressed their regret for failing to appear before PEC for the presentation of their activity report and financial statement for the year 2018 and 2019.
Mr. Alieu Ngum, Chairperson of the board, said PURA has been meeting the requirements of the committee in the past but failed this time around due to some problems. This include communication problem on the side of the authority.
“There have been serious lapses on the side of the management, they would try to correct them and I assure you that we will duly appear before this committee to present the two reports,” he said.
The board appealed to the select committee to give them until next Wednesday to reappear for the presentation of the 2018 and 2019 activity reports and financial statements. Thus, the committee resorted to a short stand down and the select committee and they consulted each other to decide on the board’s appeal, which lasted for few minutes.
Halifa Sallah, Chairperson of PEC, informed the media that PURA Board did indicate a level of seriousness which got the understanding of the committee members.
“The committee members are convinced that the words utilized did reflect genuine regret for what happened and genuine desire to accompany the committee to assist the institution to a greater viability and that is the purpose. In that regards, the benchmark is noted and that is by next week, the reports would be ready for PURA to submit and appear before the committee for presentation,” he said.
Sitting with PURA Board has been adjourned to Wednesday 3rd February, 2021
