Former Senate Pro – tempore Armah Zulu Jallah of Gbarpolu County has expressed disappointment in the Liberian Senate over the passage of the recast budget. Speaking Monday, 1 June on a local radio station in Monrovia, Sen. Jallah said he wouldn’t use Dillon’s words, but insisted that his colleague spoke out of frustration.
Sen. Jallah’s comment comes in the wake of the Senate’s reported probe into Mr. Dillon’s expression of frustration at his colleague’s passage of the recast budget which the latter believes was short of normal legislative procedures, especially their failure to first receive a committee report before the passage.
Jallah argues that there are lawmakers who have said worse things than Dillon said, noting that there is no complaint against the Montserrado County Senator.
Recently Dillon accused his colleagues in the Senate of taking bribes to pass the recast budget, describing the Senate as rotten, spineless and useless.Sen. Jallah explains that when the budget is passed by the House of Representatives, it is sent to the Senate. After the first reading of the budget in the Senate, he says it is sent into committee room where it is debated.
When the budget leaves the committee room, Jallah details that it is when a resolution is passed.In the case of the recast budget in question, the Senate passed a resolution without receiving the budget from the committee room, prompting Mr. Dillon’s frustration at his colleagues.
Sen. Jallah indicates that the budget was not debated, yet a resolution was passed, adding: “I cannot tell what is in that budget for the health system of Gbarpolu.” He notes that the coalition establishment of which he’s a member is not living up to its promises and the expectation of the Liberian people.
Jallah argues that if the government sends a budget, it should be scrutinized by the Senate before the Senate passes a resolution.He states that the Legislature, here where he has worked in top leadership position, is the problem of the country.
By Ethel A Tweh–Edited by Winston W. Parley
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