Joseph Kamara, ACC Boss
By Tilly Barrie
Four men fined Le 500 million each by the Anti-Corruption Commission in a controversial out-of-court settlement in 2012 are yet to pay up, according to the latest Auditor General's report.
The anti-graft agency was on the verge of charging Edmond Koroma, Gibril Saccoh, Mamoud Idris and Mohamed Bah for their role in the purchase of two broken ferries costing about 3 million Euros when it decided it had settled with them out of court.
Three of the four reportedly paid Le 200 million each, while Gibril Saccoh did not pay anything, our sources say.
Usually reliable sources say plans are underway to declare as bad debt the remaining Le 900 million the three men still owe, while Saccoh who was sacked as Deputy Director General at NASSIT three weeks ago insisted he be charged to court instead.
Edmond Koroma who was the Director General of NASSIT at the time of the purchase is the country's Financial Secretary, Mahmoud Idriss works at the secretariat set up by the Sierra Leone government for the US government's clean governance scheme Millennium Challenge Corporation which the country lost out on, while Mohamed Bah works in Ghana. Gibril Saccoh until two weeks ago was still the Deputy Director General at NASSIT.
The Commissioner of the Anti Corruption Commission, Joseph Kamara declined to comment on the Auditor General’s report. “I won’t give any comment about the amount paid but there has been some substantial amount paid”.
On Gibril Saccoh not paying anything “I can’t comment on individual but there has been some payment”.
He said the Appeals Court had ruled in a similar case involving the purchase of substandard trucks by Hamza Alusine Sesay and Dr Sarah Bendu of the Sierra Leone Road Transport Authority that the Procurement Act was not in place at the time of both purchases so the hands of the commission were tied.
The controversial ferries - MV Bai Bureh and MV Masimera) - were bought through an allegedly flawed process prompting speculation that there was some sleaze involved. One of the ferries never worked, while the other did after hundreds of thousands of dollars had been spent to fix it in Senegal even before it started plying. It broke down not long after.
The head of NASSIT Sam Bangura who was not in office at the time of the purchases, and his deputy Gibril Saccoh, were sacked due to alleged investment blunders.
(C) Politico 06/05/14
