By Umaru Fofana
There is a mishmash of cases before a Freetown magistrate court bordering on malfeasance. And the Anti Corruption Commission is grappling with its; some including some of those before the court. They range from alleged bank fraud involving a property developer and the top echelons of the largest bank in the country, to the tax man and the ports and bank workers. And just anybody else, it would seem. You just needed to listen to the head of the ACC to gauge the severity of how tough the fight against graft seems to be getting.
Let us start somewhere, if you believe the allegations: The place is Freetown. Sierra Leone. She works at a very prominent bank in West Africa – ECOBANK. Probably the best organised, best run and most established in the region. He works at the National Revenue Authority (NRA). A tax collecting institution whose workers have houses built in just a few years into their employment and costing more than they can ever save from genuine pay. I am not necessarily saying that is the case in the current cases. I just know so from observing other tax collectors. It seems to be the name of the game at the customs department thereby making nonsense of the raison d’être for bringing together all tax collection under the canopy of the NRA.
In a country where material things breed hero-worshipping – never mind how they were earned – it makes some of us look like unserious creatures. In a country that has lately been attracting investment – a lot of what I would call INFECTMENT (carriers of infections) especially in its huge and sometimes controversial iron ore and agribusiness sectors, the tax man must be busy. Very busy. So must the banker be, too. Yes these two – husband and wife – have been extremely busy in the office. Allegedly, for more reasons than one.
Apparently on his advice, and in addition to her official functions, she opens an account at her bank. Purpose: to siphon tax money meant for the consolidated revenue fund and put it into theirs. The account name is NRA. Not to be confused with the National Revenue Authority. Oh…sorry…it was actually meant to be confused for it. Except that in this make-believe account name, the NRA means actually NOTHING. Just NRA. Make the account name appear as close to the institution’s name as possible. Then hoodwink the customer. And defraud the state. And enrich yourself.
The trial could actually determine how much money had been lodged into that phoney NRA account before this burst. If any. Or even how many other such account names exist. And how many people operate them; or who they really are. The burst came about after one of the bio-energy companies – ADDAX – paid its tax obligations. A cool Le 400 million paid to the National Revenue Authority. The phoney NRA account it gets lodged into. Somehow it gets burst. It is fair to say that the accused have protested their innocence.
The other allegations go: A property developer takes huge loans from three banks and a home finance company, HFC. Among them the country’s largest – the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank. Others are the First International Bank and the Guarantee Trust Bank. If you believe the allegations, the property developer, Simeon Kabbah Khalu was aided and abetted in all this by some at the top of the SLCB. It took the HFC to let the alleged fraudulent conversion be exposed. Upon default of repayment of their loan by Mr Khalu they went to court and got a ruling to take possession of the collateral that had been supplied by him. Apparently the same had been supplied to the other banks as same. They were caught in the throes.
No doubt the allegations against these men are pretty serious. But the fact, which is the thrust of my piece, still remains that we are sacrificing the rule of law and respect for human rights and dignity simply because the prosecution believe these accused persons are guilty. That sounds to me more like persecution. They may as well be innocent until the court proves the prosecution right.
But let us for a moment and for the sake of argument say they are all guilty, what has happened to their presumption of innocence? The law is very clear on how long someone should be held for without charge. Some of the now-accused persons in the matter involving the senior bank officials and the property developer were held as suspects (by the police) for twelve days despite their constitutional right guaranteeing that, for economic crime, they can only be held for a period not exceeding ten days and they must be brought before a competent court of law.
You may want to ask “where were their lawyers for not applying for a habeas corpus?” Because the application was not made, to my mind, is no justification for keeping them in a manner that is ultra vires to their rights.
And the manner in which the police did this, without the slightest show of compunction, is what galls me. And these are not common criminals. They should hitherto be respectable and respected members of society. Unless their conviction is proved.
In the case of the NRA and ECOBANK matter, they were duly charged within the constitutional time limit, I understand. But they have appeared before a magistrate several times with no evidence led against them. Yet they are being denied bail. In a country where there is no compensation after acquittal even after having been wrongfully detained, it is but a part of natural justice that delay in the advancement of evidence in a court matter especially for someone who has been denied bail should be criticised.
I know that bail is entirely the discretion of a judge or a magistrate. For that reason it has to be refused after careful consideration. It is a liberty thing. If flight risk, tampering with evidence and the risk of committing the crime again are the key factors for a bail application to be refused, a responsible citizen who has not committed murder and who has credible sureties should not just be refused bail especially after spending so many days in a police cell.
Opposition politician, Dr Abass Bundu has been facing charges in a magistrate court for over one year. He has appeared almost a dozen times. Only one witness – the prosecuting police – has been called and no evidence.
If all this can happen in Freetown, God only knows how many times and how frequently it happens in remote parts of the country.
I wish to end by restating part of what came out in the keynote speech at the annual congress of the Sierra Leone Bar Association delivered by Ombudsman Edward Cowan. My observation is that news reporting on court cases, not for the first time, has been less than satisfactory. Some newspaper houses have preferred to report so one-sidedly that only their interest is reported in especially corruption or political matter is represented. The rules of journalism are very clear. It will not be too far from right for the Independent Media Commission to call journalists to order in reporting on alleged corruption cases. We are toying with people’s life-long reputation. And they have families. Even if these people are guilty we have to respect the rules of our profession. Even if they are guilty, the police and the courts should respect the presumption of innocence.
(C) Politico 05/07/13
