Increasing Calls for President Maada Bio to set aside the Leadway Trading Company Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Babadi Kamara reigns high to save the New Direction Government.
Sources indicate that Babadi Kamara is in tax fraud schemes to smear the image of government. Documentary evidence seen by this press confirms the allegation. Receipts issued by the Leadway CEO lacks the normal digits of a legal receipt, and are not lodged with the country’s revenue collection agency, the National Revenue Authority.
The alleged illegal activities have the tendency to undermine the enviable anti-corruption credentials government has made over the years, and the impressive inroads it intends to earn to its credit.
Further investigations conducted by this press indicate that the public holds negative perception against government for maintaining Babadi Kamara in such position in the face of damning allegations government reports as well as local and international media.
“Government might have a share in the money Babadi Kamara Makes out of tax fraud,” a member of the public accused government. Government wears the crown however it may not have a speck of knowledge of the exploits of the Leadway CEO.
The barrage of corruption allegations that have marred the timber industry may dampen the intention of international businessmen to put their money in such industry. The failure of the industry to attract the much needed funds is bad for Sierra Leone, a country that badly needs funds to fund other sectors of the economy.
Needless to say Sierra Leone needs good highways, electricity, safe drinking water, health facilities, schools and other essential services for a teeming population. It can be said without any fear of contradiction that government needs finances to meet its obligations to the people.
One of the major sources of government revenue is natural resource including timber with which the country is endowed. This precious source of revenue will be badly affected if corruption takes over the timber sector.
Corruption in the timber industry is slowly becoming an economic disaster for Sierra Leone, but is more of disaster when government sits with folded arms without prosecuting those responsible for financial leakages. The retention of Babadi Kamara as government agent in the exploitation of timber in Sierra Leone in the midst of wide ranging corruption allegations has a devastating effect to the promises made by President Julius Maada Bio of blocking leakages.
In his campaign trails in the 2018 elections, President Bio was on record to have expressed the strongest intention to eradicate corruption from Sierra Leone. In almost all interviews the President granted on local and international media, the promise to develop the country out of funds garnered from blocking leakages was the most prominent.
It was against the backdrop of such promise that President Bio took over reins of state command, and hopes to cleanse the country from corruption continue to ride high. Upon coming to power, standards were set for ministers as well as public and civil servants to comply with.
The Setting up of the commissions of inquiry to probe the financial activities of officials of the past government was seen by many Sierra Leoneans as bold step in the right direction. The step is that of democratic accountability, and it is a constant reminder that handling state resources is not ownership but stewardship.
The step also seeks to consolidate a rule of law culture in Sierra Leone as bright corruption lines were drawn for public officials. Trends in the timber industry show that Babadi Kamara has courageously crossed the red lines and hopes to walk free.
The Leadway Trading Company has failed to lead the way in the timber industry owing to corruption scandals. The situation is a real case for the ACC if the fight against corruption should be taken for serious in Sierra Leone. Since he attained monopoly as the sole exporter of the country’s timber, Babadi Kamara has allegedly involved in corruption on a grand scale.
The allegations hold that Babadi Kamara has been collecting illegal tax by demanding USD7, 500 instead of the government approved USD2, 750. He operates with over 100 companies and about 13,000 containers of timber have been shipped out of Sierra Leone without the 5.5% withholding tax.
Failure to collect the said tax portrays high level of disrespect for the law that governs collection of revenue for the state. Apart from the tax fraud allegations, it is also alleged that Babadi Kamara has never declared the profit he has earned since the sole exporter right was conferred on him.
The allegations are fit cases for the graft agency, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to investigate. The ACC however seems to be dragging its feet to probe the allegedly illegal financial activities of the Leadway CEO. It is a growing public perception that a swift investigation by the ACC would halt illicit financial flows in the timber industry.
Apart from piles of documents which sources are ready to tender to prove the corruption allegations against Babadi Kamara, Government audit reports also strengthen the allegations against him.
An audit report into government’s financial activities for the fiscal year 2019 shows marked discrepancies in the accounting of timber exports by Leadway Trading Sierra Leone Ltd. The report accused government of failing to account for the sum of Le2.1Bn collected from timber transactions in the country. An Africanist press publications also made similar allegations relying on the government audit report.
“A comparison between the timber cash book and bank statement shows that revenue for the export levy (receipt no430917) totaling Le2, 101,120,000 (two billion, one and one million, 120, 000) was not paid into the relevant bank account at the Bank of Sierra Leone,” the auditors noted.
For every timber transaction, the audit report further notes, export levy of USD2, 500 and afforestation USD350 should be paid per cubic centimeter. It is also observed by the auditors that In January last year two containers were exported, but only the afforestation fee USD200 (Le1,674, 162) was recorded in the cash book and bank statement.
Consequently, the report further alleged that export levy and afforestation fee of Le41, 854, 050 (USD5, 000) and Le4, 185, 405 (USD500) respectively were neither banked nor recorded in the cash book.
In all these dangerous corruption allegations, Leadway has been at the centre. It is further alleged by the report that the Company used shipping containers rather than cubic metres as a unit of measurement for exported timber contrary to the required rules stipulated in section 3 of the Finance Amendment Act of 2018.
The said section provides: “an exporter of any timber product shall prior to exportation pay to the National Revenue Authority, a timber royalty of US$2,500 on every cubic metre of such timber or part thereof.”
Leadway Trading Company, the sole exporter of Sierra Leone was allegedly using containers instead of cubic metres, the legally recognised unit of measurement.
The report thereby claims that the exported timber was undervalued. If accurate, the report says, Leadway’s paying of taxes per container rather than per cubic metre of timber exported means a major undervaluing of the amount of timber exported thereby reducing the value of applicable taxes due government.
The allegations in the report are far from being exhausted, but they are apt and appealing and calling on government to do away with Babadi Kamara to save its neck. Many Sierra Leoneans says if the status quo in the timber industry is maintained, the opposition will not hesitate to use it against government.
Its potential to damage government chances in the 2023 polls cannot be underestimated.