By Ralph Sesay
Former Director of Finance at the National Telecommunications Commission, Mr. Foday Conteh has been messed-up at the Commissions of Enquiry while testifying on the rampant support NATCOM gave to Members of Parliament, Ministry of Parliamentary and Political Affairs, Ministry of Information and Communications and other individuals.
He was squeezed on the application of relevant financial procedures in the disbursement of funds especially to individual Members of Parliament in the name of supporting the Parliament of Sierra Leone.
Mr. Conteh accepted that he was influenced by Board Members of the National Telecommunications, Director General and individual Members of Parliament to bypass professional financing protocols to give individual Members of Parliament cash support instead of using the normal banking processes.
Defense counsel for the state, Lawyer Kowa clearly pinpointed the fact that the Director of Finance was giving monies to individual Members of Parliament as and when they requested in the name of support to Parliament.
Mr. Kowa was also able to establish through the witness that this practice was wrong and that it was followed right through by the Commission with the collusion of certain Members of Parliament.
The witness indicated in his testimony names of certain Board members at NATCOM and the Director General, Momoh Conte of having endorsed the wrong practice of giving monies to individual MPs by hand and not through the banking process.
The issue of NATCOM providing financial support to members of parliament and other government ministries was a subject of Government Transition Team Report and many Members of Parliament currently on the ruling and opposition sides have been accused of requesting for and pocketed millions of Leones unnecessarily from NATCOM.