By Aminata Phidelia Allie
The former coordinator in the directorate of planning and information in the ministry of Health and Sanitation, was yesterday, August 26, cleared of corruption charges brought against him early this year. Justice John Bosco Katutsi of the Freetown High Court, discharged him for “insufficient evidence". Bernard T. M. Dugba, who was indicted alongside twenty-eight others in March by the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC), was on trial for 15 counts of misappropriation of donor funds and other corruption-related offences, contrary to the Anti Corruption Commission Act of 2008. The prosecution, who alleged that the accused had on several occasions cashed cheques, and spent money that was never accounted for, relied on the evidences of two witnesses. But the accused, who during investigations claimed he acted on instructions from his supervisor, said he handed over the monies to his boss, Dr. Micheal Mathew Amara. Asked why he had handed over the monies, Dugba replied that Dr. Amara was the one that had instructed him to cash the cheques as the financial supervisor in the directorate. Justice Katutsi noted that the answer provided by the accused was “a plausible, logical and just answer which the good ACC investigators, who seemed satisfied with a job well done never bothered to investigate by interviewing Dr. Amara”. He further noted that the prosecuting counsel, in submission “had the temerity to say that Dr. Amara was never called upon to testify because the accused never called on him to testify on his behalf”. He ruled that he had not the slightest hesitation in dismissing the entire indictment against the accused “and he is hereby acquitted of all the charges herein”. © Politico 27/08/13
