WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH THE MARITIME OFFICE?
So we don’t know why the Sierra Leone Maritime Administration office in Freetown has become this very productive hunting ground for the Anti-Corruption Commission. Whenever they cast their net around that place they get a good catch. Like everybody else we believe that recently arrested and those charged are totally not guilty until the courts decide otherwise but that doesn’t stop good citizens like us from asking the inevitable question: why is that building such a fertile place for the ACC?
We know that after the unbelievably quick sacking of Ayatollah Sistani of the justice sector by Principal, the next major sackings from the New Direction administration came from the Maritime department where the boss and her deputy were thrown into the sea of joblessness. The boss has just been arraigned on fresh charges. What’s really going on out there? We’ve been thinking about a few things, mindful of course of the fact that what we have for now are, as the lawyers always say “MERE ALLEGATIONS”. But consider the following:
1. It could well be that some of the people employed there were not subjected to serious background checks to determine their suitability for such high integrity positions. Correct?
2. Is there something very wrong with the system itself such that there are too many samba gutters through which a lot of water flows?
3. Wouldn’t it be a good idea to send the staff home for a week or two and send in the auditors and professional administrators to clean up the place for a fresh start? Nobody will be sacked but they will return to an unrecognizable office after two weeks.
4. Maybe we should also look at the oversight board. They are presiding over an organization that has to constantly deal with the ACC. What are they doing?
5. Or we give up on the Maritime administration and encourage the ACC to open a branch office inside Maritime House. Why not? There’s a lot of work to do there.
By the way, you will notice that we are refusing to call the ACC investigators SCORPIONS as they would like us to. We don’t want to invoke the spirit of those in South Africa that grew from fighting corruption on behalf of the people like our own ACC to embarking on politically motivated arrests that led to their eventual collapse.
A GHOST FROM THE PAST APPEARS: HERE COMES FRANK TIMIS
This guy is never far away from our shores. Right? Last week we read a pamphlet written by lawyers representing Millionaire Timis in which he claimed he was badly treated by King Messi’s administration.
According the letter, a copy of which we received from some friends Millionaire Timis is claiming he virtually funded the infrastructure projects under King Messi with one hundred million dollars and he made several other payments. In not as many words, he accused King Messi of being ungrateful. How else could we describe a situation in which after all what he claims he did for King Messi’s government, his mining licenses were cancelled unjustly.
We have a situation now where Millionaire Timis is trying to return to the lucrative mines of Sierra Leone by asking the new minister of mines to review his case and possibly declare him a good investor who was cheated by the last administration. Well, we don’t even know whether the minister has received a copy of the letter in our possession. We also don’t know what his reaction would be after reading the letter. What we know on behalf of the ordinary people of Sierra Leone is that Millionaire Timis should take part in some conversations on some key issues first before dreaming of coming back:
1. Is it true that Millionaire Timis was declared persona non grata by King Messi long before he left office? If that is correct we may want to discuss the grounds on which King Messi took that decision.
2. Did Millionaire Timis pay his creditors from his purchase of London Mining? We were at that meeting a Radisson Blue that ended in chaos. We need some clarifications.
3. We also need to know a few more details about that deal in Senegal involving the brother of the president of that country. The whole thing looked like some horror movie depicting corruption in Africa. We need to know more. We want to protect this land.
4. Apart from that one hundred million dollar payment to King Messi for infrastructure projects your lawyers mentioned, did you make any other big payments to Messi? Do you have receipts of those payments? Or were they kukujumuku payments?
5. Aren’t you really tired with Sierra Leone sir? You’ve taken a lot out of here already what else are you looking for? Is there something we should know?
WHEN ALL IS SAID AND DONE AT THE BUDGET HEARING
The last two weeks has been dominated by the budget making process. Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies have been making presentations to Ministry of Finance officials basically explaining why more money should be allocated to them in the coming budget. We have seen very big figures splashed across the front pages of newspapers.
First of all we like this open process of dealing with a matter as serious preparing a national budget. It started some years ago and it has given the ordinary citizen an opportunity to at least see and hear from those in charge of preparing the budget and those who end up spending the cash in Ministries Departments and Agencies. But this is not the whole story.
1. The good people of Sierra Leone are very concerned that in many cases what is eventually approved in parliament is never passed on in full to the MDAs. In King Messi’s days they would actually write to tell MDAs that subventions for the last quarter of the financial year would not be provided as part of some fiscal belt tightening. But the belt was left hanging in other less important areas.
2. They are also concerned that in some cases more money is spent on traveling, workshops and office entertainment than on actual projects that change the lives of people.
3. Is it possible for the people to continuously monitor how the money allocated to MDAs is spent? We are not talking about what parliament does on their behalf. If the people are invited to see the making of the budget, they should be invited to monitor the spending.
4. By the way, can the Ministry of Finance please tell us how much money they have spent setting up this budget making process. We just want to keep our records straight.
5. Next stop, parliament building where Jay Jay the son of Saffa will make his big pronouncements. Please we don’t want to have to listen to a budget speech for more than ONE HOUR AND HALF HOURS.
HOW MANY DOGS DO WE HAVE IN SIERRA LEONE AGAIN?
We saw some interesting figures the other day about the number of dogs we have in this country. Social media was on fire with most people questioning the credibility of the survey and indeed the figures. Well, we congratulate those who bothered to check the figures in the first place. We are not too bothered whether the figures were as scientific as some people on social media wanted them to be. These are the things that really bother us in all this debate about the number of dogs in our country.
1. We can even revise the figures to as low as ONE THOUSAND. The question would still remain how many of those dogs are in homes being cared by people?
2. What are we doing about the thousands of stray ones having a field day particularly in Freetown? The FCC seems not to bother with them at all.
3. How many people have died of rabies in the last few years alone?
4. What about allegations that dog meat is beginning to appear on some dinner tables in this country. Are we now moving into a new area?
5. Is there any animal welfare society in Sierra Leone?
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