The audit and inspection committee of Semayawi (Blue) Party passed the decision to suspend another decision, one that is passed by the discipline committee of the party, which stipulated the sacking and suspension of five high-ranking officials of the party that includes its founding President Yilekal Getnet (Eng.) and his former deputy.
The audit committee passed the decision pending its final decision over the issue in the coming two weeks, chairman of the committee Abera Gebru told The Reporter.
The audit committee looked over the decision of the discipline committee which handed down harsher verdict to sack the president and its finance manager of the party while suspending the vice president and member of the national council.
The discipline committee reached at this decision after examining the case presented to it by the national council of the party concerning the embezzlement of financial resource of the party. Subsequently, the committee sacked Yielkal and Weretaw Wassie, president and head of the finance department of the party, respectively, from the party; while Sileshi Feyesa and Woyneshet Molla, both members of the national council, were suspended for two years from any party activities and Getaneh Balcha, another member of the national council, received a lighter punishment of being stripped off of his voting rights for three months.
Following the suspension by the discipline committee, the audit and inspection committee was tasked to investigate the case and the action of the discipline committee; finally the audit committee suspended the decision since some irregularities were found in the decision, the chairman said.
According to the chairman, the decision of the discipline committee has flaws in clearly identifying the problems; and what the sacked and the suspended members of the party have done. In this regard, the decision violates the bylaws of the party, lacks clarity and it also violates the working procedures of the party.
“Though the decision stated that members of the party embezzled financial resource, the charge did not specifically identify who took what; it rather simply stated that there is an embezzlement of financial resource. The president is sacked only by the decision of general assembly and that the committee possesses no mandate to do so; hence the decision clearly violates the bylaws of the party. Another irregularity in this decision was the fact that the suspects were not present when the case was reviewed; hence they were not in position to defend themselves. This again violates the procedure of party.” Abera highlighted.
In this regard, the audit and inspection committee decided to suspend the decision and to investigate the case thoroughly, the chairman stated. Henceforth, the committee will give its final decision after a couple of weeks and the decision passed by the committee will be final and binding, the chairman concluded.
President of the party Yilekal declined to comment on the issue on the grounds that the case is still under investigations and that he reserves any comment before the audit committee reaches its final and binding decision.
