One of the main reasons why many Sierra Leoneans abroad are not interested in investing in their country is because their government does not protect their interests.
Over the years, many of them had attempted to establish eye-watering investments in their country but they have not succeeded like the Lebanese, Indians or other foreigners doing business in the country because they did not get protection from the government.
Even the few citizens braving it out to compete with foreign investors are being disadvantaged by the Government, especially unscrupulous government officials who believe that protecting foreign investors at any cost is more lucrative than encouraging their own brothers and sisters to compete with them.
When erstwhile President Ernest Bai Koroma acceded to power in September 2007, for instance, many Sierra Leoneans in the diaspora were encouraged to return home and invest in their country.
Given that it was a dawn of a new era, many of our brothers and sisters returned home and established lucrative businesses.
But unfortunately, many were left disappointed after they discovered that rogue government officials were more interested in encouraging foreign investors than indigenous investors from whom they don’t expect mouth-watering bribes to establish business.
Consequently, many of them folded their investments and returned abroad with heavy hearts.
Ironically, though, there are many rogue foreigners in Sierra Leone feigning as successful investors that are well protected by some unscrupulous government officials against their own fellow Sierra Leonean investors because of malice or jealousy.
Why are very senior officials in the current government protecting a notorious Italian rogue called Giovanni Berardi, is the one-million-dollar question many concerned people are asking.
Despite the fact that the Italian Mafioso owes Radisson Blu Mammy Yoko Hotel at Aberdeen, Freetown Le890million for services the hotel rendered him and has escaped from the hotel, he’s being protected from arrest and prosecution by some unscrupulous senior government officials at State House.
When Giovanni Berardi escaped from Radisson Blu after he had accumulated Le890million debt, the management of the hotel formally reported the matter at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Headquarters in Freetown in the hope that immediate action would be taken against the fugitive debtor.
The hotel management even made resilient effort to discover the hideout of its debtor at Aberdeen and reported it to the CID Headquarters, hoping that he would be immediately arrested to honour his debt obligation to Radisson Blu.
But what has baffled the hotel management and many concerned citizens is that since the matter was reported at the CID Headquarters, no attempt has ever been made by the detective boss, Chief Superintendent J. M. Tommy to invite or order the arrest of Giovanni Berardi to honour his debt obligation.
The rogue Italian investor, according to my investigation, has a cabal of criminal thread running through any regime over the last two decades.
Prior to Giovanni Berardi leaving behind the Le890million debt at Radisson Bl, he had in mid-2000 incurred US$30,000 debt at Jay’s Guesthouse in Freetown.
He mysteriously escaped from the guesthouse leaving behind valuable properties far more expensive than the debt he incurred for lodging, storage and other services.
After three years in hiding in neighbouring Liberia, Giovanni Berardi later returned to Sierra Leone after someone had, based on an agreement between the proprietor of Jay’s Guesthouse and a representative of the Italian rogue, paid the US$30,000.00 debt which he, the Italian, owed to the guesthouse before his valuable properties were released. The rest is history.
This is the same Giovanni Berardi who some monetized senior officials at State House are protecting from arrest after he had escaped from honouring the Le890million debt obligation to Radisson Blu.
While the police for obvious reasons are reluctant to apprehend the Italian Mafioso to honour his debt obligation, he is gallivanting around bragging about his connections at State House and the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) Government, a regime that prides itself in fighting corruption.
What is hard to fathom is the attempt by the rogue senior government officials to protect Giovanni Berardi from honouring the Le890million he owes Radisson Blu, a hotel which the National Social Security and Insurance Trust (NASSIT) is majority shareholder.
Although the hotel management has made tremendous efforts using the legal procedure to ensure that the debtor honours his debt obligation, CID Headquarters has frustrated those efforts through inaction because of ‘orders from above.’
As I write, there have been many startling revelations at the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and the ongoing Commissions of Inquiry (COIs) about how billions of Leones were embezzled at NASSIT through contracts.
The former Director General of NASSIT, Joseph Mans, for example, is currently standing trial in connection with a questionable contract running into millions of United States Dollars.
All those administrative anomalies occurred during the past All People’s Congress (APC) Government of former President, Ernest Bai Koroma because of bad governance, mismanagement of state resources and corruption.
The claim of fighting corruption would be tantamount to crocodile tears if the SLPP is condoning corruption.
I believe that in the spirit of fighting corruption through and through, there should be no sacred cow.
But some unscrupulous senior officials at State House, probably out of malice, jealousy or fake promises, are protecting Giovanni Berardi from prosecution for owing Radisson Blu a whopping Le890million, which is owned by contributors to the NASSIT Trust Fund.
Those crooked senior government officials protecting Giovanni Berardi from paying the money he owes Radisson Blu, are enemies of the state because if they truly love their country, they would not allow a crooked foreigner to rob their Sierra Leonean compatriots of their hard-earned salaries and get away with it while residing here.
This is the sad situation with the Management of Radisson Blu Mammy Yoko Hotel.
Though it has reported the matter to the CID Headquarters and even located the hideout of Giovanni Berardi at Aberdeen in the far west of Freetown so that he would be apprehended for questioning, it appears that the hands of the CID boss are being tied by some invisible hands at State House; hence, the reluctance of CID to apprehend the notorious debt-monger to cough up NASSIT’s contributors’ money.
At least, it is now on record that an Italian rogue has disgracefully escaped from footing the bill of Le890million at Radisson Blu Mammy Yoko Hotel through the protection of some unpatriotic senior officials at State House.
Should another regime emerge after the SLPP government, say in five or ten years’ time, Giovanni Berardi should be a ‘Person of Interest’ in any commission(s) of inquiry to explain why he failed to honour his debt obligation.
His revelation would be quite startling, when some senior officials close to the President would be nailed by the Italian Mafioso.
While Giovanni Berardi’s backers are hoping that his promise of sharing with them his imagined US$2million he would soon claim from where only God knows, concerned Sierra Leoneans are still brooding over why the unscrupulous senior officials at State House are protecting someone who has duped a hotel that is largely owned by a state institution.
But the public is still watching to see how CID headquarters will deal with the Giovanni Berardi-Radisson Blu matter under a regime that prides itself in championing the fight against corruption.