By Saio Marrah
Justice Adrian Fisher, presiding over the ongoing corruption trial with respect to the renovation of the Sierra Leone UN mission chancery building in New York, has promised that the case will be completed by December 2023.
The judge told the crowded court in Freetown on Wednesday 26th July 2023 that he would now be giving short adjournments and would spend more time in court when the trial resumes.
The judge pointed out that the trial which started in 2021 will not be rushed and will be conducted in accordance with laid down procedure with the December time frame in mind and urged all stakeholders to gather more zeal for the trial.
Justice Fisher was speaking during the third day of testimony by the first accused, Saidu Nallo.
Nallo quoted a contract document, which stated that there ought not be any interruption of the renovation of the building and construction of the additional fifth and sixth floors but said that commitment was not complied with because there were nine months delay in making payment to the contractor between September 2017 when one million US dollars was paid and that it was not until in June 2018 when another 500 hundred thousand US dollars was paid to the contractor, Jules Sanders Davies. Nallo said the balance from the first two million US dollars given by the partner was remitted in tranches.
According to Nallo, there was another five months delay as well after which more money was released because Francis Kaikai, the then head of the mission, called and explained the situation to President Bio in November 2018.
He said of the second tranche of two million US dollars that was donated by the development partner in 2019, 862 thousand US dollars was sent to the mission, noting that the total amount owed to the contractor was never made available and as at May 2019, a further 963 thousand US dollars was also sent to the mission to facilitate the completion of the work with the stipulated completion date now passed.
The first accused said the delay in making payments resulted in a strike by the sub-contractor who later sued the substantive contractor of Fairfield Construction Company and Associates.
Nallo told the court that before making any payment to the contractor, the committee for the renovation of the building visited and supervised the work together with the contractor and a supervisor of the building company and that he always wrote to the ministry of Foreign Affairs in Freetown about the situation.
The five other accused are the presidential candidate for the main opposition All People's Congress Party in the just concluded elections of Sierra Leone, Dr Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara, Adikali Foday Suma, Foday Vahfomba Bawoh, Kandeh Foday Basil Kamara and John Sanders Davis.
All the accused face various charges ranging from misappropriation of public funds, to fraudulent acquisition of a benefit and abuse of office.
According to the charge sheet, the sum of $2,560,000 (two million, five hundred and sixty dollars) that was to be used for renovation of the building was misappropriated. They have denied the charges. The men were indicted by the Anti-Corruption Commission of Sierra Leone in November 2021.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (28/07/23)
