By Prince Musa
The District Youth Officer in Kenema is under pressure to explain how he used monies disbursed to him by the local council in the name of projects earmarked for youths.
Ibrahim Jabbie, who coordinates all youth activities in the district, stands accused by officials of the Kenema District Council of failing to properly account for money disbursed to him.
Council officials said he received the sum of Le10 million meant for youth activities for which he has failed to account.
Councillors Victor Vandi and Tejan Jalloh, both members of the Youth Affairs Committee and Audit Committee at the council, explained that Jabbie and his former deputy, named only as Kadiatu, couldn’t account for the money which they were allocated to conduct youth elections in some chiefdoms.
The councillors told Politico that the money was also meant for training of football coaches, an activity the two failed to undertake.
According to Vandi, the council disbursed the money in August 2016. He said when the Audit Committee asked Jabbie to produce documents to substantiate how he’d spent it, the youth officer couldn’t.
Philip John Sama, Chief Administrator at the Kenema District Council, confirmed knowledge of the district youth officer presenting an activity plan with a budget line of Le10million and which money was disbursed to him. Sama added that only the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Officer of the Council could confirm whether the activities were carried out.
The M&E Officer, Ansumana Paye, told Politico that the activities involved were the organisation of a football tournament at Panguma in the Lower Bambara Chiefdom and the training of youth coaches in the Small Bo chiefdom. He however said that he couldn’t tell if the activities were carried out, noting that he only knew about what he was told by Jabbie and other district youth officers. He said they’d told him they bought some few items for refreshment and showed him payment voucher indicating payment to participants.
Mr Paye said no receipt or any other document justifying the said spending was presented to him, despite having demanded for such.
The monitoring officer then promised to embark on an “independent investigation” on the issue.
Ibrahim Jabbie, for his part, said the money he received alongside Kadiatu was meant to undertake sensitisation activities on youth violence and HIV/AIDS to coincide with World Youths Day. He said they were to visit all the respective chiefdom headquarters as part of the said programme. He however said they later decided to “cluster” the activities in Kenema due to unspecified reasons. He insisted that they involved councillors throughout the entire process.
Jabbie explained that the total amount represented the first and second quarter disbursements to the council from the Ministry of Youth Affairs, meant for youth activities in the district. He also alleged that out of the amount he gave some money to the Chief Administrator to be distributed among the Council Chairman and other core staff. He however declined to discuss the details of that with the media.
Jabbie then expressed disappointment with the M&E officer’s statement on the issue.
When contacted both Councillors Allie Lobba of Lower Bambara chiefdom and Mohamed Rogers of Blama denied any knowledge of activities undertaken in their wards as claimed by Jabbie.
Copyright (c) Politico 2016
