Despite 124M Sovereign Guarantee… GOVT EXPENDED OVER Le300B On Hosting 69th ECOWAS Summit

Just after the Minister of Finance read the supplementary budget, Members of Parliament particularly those of the Opposition started raising issues about the money spent on the ECOWAS Summit which was included in the documents.
Hon Salieu Osman Sesay from Bombali district stated that it is in the budget that over Le300B was spent on the hosting of the 69th ECOWAS Summit in Freetown.
“If you look at ECOWAS, the 2026 budget was 10M but jumped 266M in the supplementary budget. This money should have been used for more sectors that will give us economic benefits,” he said.
He continued that there was another unallocated spending of Nle80,000.
Hon Aaron Bangura of Tonkolili District slammed the Information Minister Chernoh Bah for telling the people of this country that the government spent just Le10B on the ECOWAS summit which is contrary to what is in the budget
He stressed that one of the reasons for the budget was because government spent Nle326, 499 which is correspondingly over 300 Billion Old leones, noting that the government is only coming with the amount now to justify their spending.
“The budget is here to justify what has been spent which is against the constitution of Sierra Leone. Government spent this huge amount and it is telling on us now on the economy,” Hon Aaron Bangura maintained.
He said that when one looks at the theme of the budget, “Strengthening Budget Credibility to Safeguard Macroeconomic Stability and Protect Livelihood of Citizens,” one will know that it is prioritizing the welfare of citizens, pointing out that there are many questions with regards the theme and the actual budget.
He said that areas that protect citizens are on social spending but that the budget does not spend more on the social wellbeing of the people.
He said that another parameter for the supplementary budget is fuel, asking the Ministry of Finance to do proper finding and forecasting to prevent budget disruption