By Mohamed Vandi
Anti-Corruption Commission, ACC, is investigating the finance officer of the District Health Management Team, DHMTin Bo, Obai Koroma, for alleged fraud in the ongoing payment of allowances to staff and volunteers of the anti-Ebola campaign.
On the 20October this year, three senior officials stormed the offices of the DHMT, forcefully entered the office of the finance officer and took away his payment vouchers. The incident happened in the full view of journalists and members of civil society.
The action of the ACC officials triggered a wave of criticisms from many stakeholders in Bo, including some civil society members, who viewed the swoop as “totally unprofessional, unethical and contrary to official procedures required to obtain documents.”
The anti-graft squad returned the vouchers after some hours, which the finance officer accepted reluctantly despite several apologies from the said officials.
Few days laterthe ACC officially invited the same finance officer for interrogation and ordered him to surrender his payment vouchers and make an official statement.
However, one senior ACC official, Umaru Sesay, who spoke to this reporter, defended the action earlier of his three senior colleagues, saying that it was neither unprofessional nor unethical. He argued that the ACC had the right to grab without notice any sensitive document which they thought was pertinent to their investigation and which could be used as evidence.
The District Medical Officer, Dr. Alhaji Saynie Turay, told Politico that “the payment was transparent as it was closely supervised by the ACC, civil society and other stakeholders all of whom were invited to be part of the payment.”
The finance officer expressed bewilderment over the fact that the ACC would eventually investigate him for a payment they witnessed and supervised. He noted that he only paid those the District Medical Officer and the District Health Sister had instructed him to pay, adding that none of those he paid complained that they were underpaid or overpaid.
“If ever there was fraud in that payment as alleged by the ACC, all of us who took part in that payment including the ACC should be part of that fraud. So, I should not be singled out for investigation,” said Koroma. He referred to the whole investigation as a “witch hunt possibly machinated by highly placed officials in the DHMT who are hell bent on giving me trouble.”
© Politico 07/11/14
