THE NEXT SALWACO BOSS SHOULD READ THIS TO SURVIVE
The former Sierra Leone Water Company or SALWACO boss has not spoken out in public since he was SACKED by Principal. We are keen to hear from him because he was hired on our behalf. We paid his salary and allowances and gave him an official vehicle and all of those sweet things of his former office. He should say something to us about his sacking.
While we wait for Ngor Munda to speak up, we have some words for the person that will next occupy that office. We know that CVs are flying all over the place as we write and people are lobbying like crazy. There’s nothing wrong with that as long as they don’t kill each other.
1. SALWACO is normally a quiet place where people go about their work without much attention. So the first thing the new boss should do is to return the place to that status. In these times people voluntarily put a lot of information about themselves in the public domain only to find out a few weeks later that they have no control of that information and others are free to weaponize it against them. As a public entity, there is no problem telling people what you are doing but all those unnecessary things about this and that should be dropped.
2. The new Director General should know that this particular supervising minster knows everything about that place having worked there for many years before being appointed to this political job. So why try to pull wool over his eyes with contract awards and management style in general? The best thing to do is cooperate with the man and achieve your results.
3. Please when somebody arrives at your door announcing themselves as DEPUTY DIRECTOR GENERAL or this and that, welcome them with open hands and give them all what they need to work effectively. It is not your job to argue over whether the Act of parliament setting of SALWACO provides for that. It is not your job to go all over the place complaining about the appointment, creating the impression that those who appointed both of you are unpatriotic and stupid.
4. In fact, you should call those who appointed you to say thanks and tell them you were ready to receive more people. Why should you stand in the way of other job seekers? Some of those job seekers were on this ground fighting for what you are enjoying today against the might of Tolongbo. Respect them.
5. Anyway, it would seem like the sacked SALWACO boss has no friends around. We are looking for people crying over his sacking outside his comfort zone. Was he really qualified for that job?
WHO OWNS THOSE COI PROPERTIES AROUND FREETOWN
We are still reading the report from the Commission of Inquiry and the government white paper. We are more than intrigued by the fact that there are some properties that were subject of the COI that nobody claimed as their own. Our reporters are on the road now to get some great pictures of these properties. So we have now multiplied the RIBAR Hotel situation several times over. By RIBAR Hotel situation we are talking about that hotel in Koidu City that the ACC took control of and passed over to the government because the real owners of that building denied owning it under ACC investigation. Despite months of waiting, nobody showed up to claim ownership.
The government white paper of the COI pointed to at least THREE properties that the owners refused to claim just because investigators were circling over their areas of location. What does that tell the good people of Sierra Leone about what happened to this country for ELEVEN years under King Messi?
As far as those properties are concerned, we should just proceed to take them over and use them for the following purposes:
1. We need proper SAFE HOUSES for all these young people that are being raped across the country. Let’s put them in some of these abandoned properties and counsel them before returning them to society with a fresh chance to make the best of their days on earth.
2. There are many homeless people in our city. We should make those houses available to them either to live permanently in them or they can use it as a drop- in area to get at least one hot meal a day.
3. Let’s open more maternity hospitals across Freetown. We should drastically reduce maternal mortality in this country by providing vital pre-natal care to our mothers and sisters.
4. We can use them as hostels for our university students. We should clearly brand them as PROCEEDS of CRIME. The billboard should be visible from a mile away.
5. Why not simply sell these houses and put whatever money we realize into the national coffers?
Hastings Hospital please give TB patients their drugs
We are particularly alarmed at the disturbing reports coming from Hastings Government Hospital in the Western Rural district. People suffering from Tuberculosis or TB have always received free treatment at all government hospitals including Hastings. Well TB patients in communities around the Hastings hospital accustomed to getting that free treatment have been going through hell in recent months. There are strong allegations that they are asked to pay fifty thousand Leones each for them to get their normal supply of the drugs. These are predominantly very poor people who just cannot afford parting with that sum of money for medicines they never ever dreamed of paying for. One female patient summed up their frustration and despair in this short but chilling sentence she uttered to neighbours, who upon hearing about her drugs refusal ordeal went to her house to express their sympathy : ‘’We are just going to die.’’ We say this is gross abuse of their human rights and therefore urge senior officials in the Health Ministry to intervene so that the patients are given their rightful supply of the curative drugs. This essentially is about saving lives. Being a highly infectious disease that has come to be linked with HIV/AIDS, TB engenders profound stigmatization in society that has forced some sufferers to stay away from the hospital. It is just about quite difficult to really understand why some staff at Hastings hospital faced with the duty of serving the patients can turn around and try to extort money from them. Where then is their core value of Empathy and Compassionate Care?
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