Sierra Leone Parliament Calls For Price Control
The Chairperson
of the Parliamentary Oversight Committee on Trade and Industry in Parliament,
Hon. Veronica K. Sesay has said that trade is the backbone for the development
of any country.
Hon Sesay made
this statement on Tuesday 18th October 2016 when the committee summoned the
Ministry of Trade and Industry.
The committee noted
that there is no price control in commodities and asked what the ministry has
done towards that and their status report.
She pointed out
that when the committee is going on oversight functions they want to see
policies of the ministry because they are the people’s representatives the
public is asking what the committee is doing as there is no price control in
the country.
The Permanent
Secretary of the Ministry of Trade Abdul R Fofanah informed the committee that
he is in charge of the administration of the ministry and his responsibility is to advise the minister
on administrative issues.
In his
presentation to the committee, Mr. Merewether said in the ministry’s 2016 status report their
mandate is to developed policies and programmes that will envisage a private
sector led economy which will ensure that socio economic needs of the citizens.
He went on to
say that the core functions of the ministry of trade is to coordinate and
spearhead the implementation of the national trade policy and industry policy
He added that in the status of the ministry’ s 2017 status
report they have five deliverables - to create a conducive business environment
through institutional and regulatory forms, to provide logistics for coordinating and
tracking of ongoing doing business reforms (DBR) FOR 10 WB indicators.
The Minister of
Trade and Industry Captain Allieu Pat- Sowe told the committee that status
report and contingency plan to address government’s austerity measures for 2016
are in place and that they are working with the local content policy
Pat Sowe further
stated that the Ministry has the mandate of developing policies and programmes
to stimulate local and export trade as well as enhancing private sector
investment, industrial and economic growth.
He said leading
economic development through policy formulation, private sector investment,
dialogue facilitation, industrial development and public education.
The minister
told the committee that there is an ongoing discussion with concern
institutions about the bidding process the Ministers of Trade and Agriculture
are spearheading and providing leadership on institutional feeding process.
The Chairperson
of the committee Hon Veronica k Sesay said now the committee is au fait with
the presentation of their status report. Hon Navo KaiKai said the local rice is
more expensive in Freetown than the imported rice.
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