By Saio Marrah
Adekali Foday Suma, the second accused in the ongoing Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) case over Sierra Leone’s UN chancery building, has told the High Court in Freetown that when he was signing the contract for renovation of the country’s Sierra chancery building, pre-contractual requirements had not been met.
The accused signed the contractual agreement on behalf of the Sierra Leone government with Fairfield Construction Company based in New York for the renovation of the property.
Under cross-examination Suma told the court on Tuesday 19th March that at the time of signing the contract in September 2016, the registration documents of Fairfield to enable them to undertake construction work in New York had expired and the company had stopped paying taxes since 2013 and their insurance liability had expired in 2015 with no record of audited accounts.
The second accused said it was his predecessor as Head of Chancery, Alusine Sesay (now deceased), who failed to comply with those requirements because he (Sesay) read the document, and verified everything before handing it over to him for his signature. Asked if read the document to ensure those requirements were met before signing the contract, the accused replied saying he read it briefly.
It was put to the accused that every staff at the country’s UN mission including the Head of Chancery was under his supervision so he should have ensured that the right things were done but he told the court that he was not aware that the Head of Chancery was his subordinate and that he thought the Head of Chancery was his superior.
The accused insisted that he ensured due diligence before signing the contract, but pointed out that he only became aware of the expiration of the registration of the construction company during the corruption trial.
Responding to a question on what it meant to say that he (the second accused) had signed the contract: The accused replied: “It meant that I am complying with instruction from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
The case resumes next Tuesday 26th March 2024 for the continuation of the cross-examination.
Copyright © 2024 Politico (22/03/24)
