The Chief Minister’s $1.5. Million dollar saga has left many tongues wagging as to the sincerity of President Bio’s fight against graft. This is especially so when the Anti-Corruption Czar, Francis Ben Kaifala has quickly jumped to the defense of the Chief Minister even before commencing an investigation into the issue.
What we have known Francis Ben Kaifala for is to conduct an immediate investigation alongside a very detailed communication to the people of Sierra Leone on the path the ACC is taking with regards any corruption related matter. We as a people are used to this modus operandi.
But even as we are into 2020, the ACC is yet to provide to us what they had obtained from ECOBANK, UBA or wherever with regards the allegations against the Chief Minister.
Many Sierra Leoneans including the NGC Leader Dr. Kandeh Yumkella has said times without numbers that FBK’s fight again graft is yet to be challenged.
Dr. Yumkella has noted that the current fight against graft needs to be sustained despite the fantastic work at establishing policy reforms and critical structures to make the fight more robust and costly.
Amidst these genuine concerns we have witnessed situations where in the ACC would remain complacent and lackadaisical whenever corruption issues points at key SLPP party functionaries.
We were disappointed that Francis Ben Kaifala who showed a full blown determination to prosecute persons named in the Special Technical Audit which reported a loss of over $1 billion had thrown the issue under the carpet just because party operatives were named in such a report.
At a press conference in Freetown he gave the impression that he would resist any attempt by Parliament and Parliamentarians to micro manage his functions at the ACC simply because they were nailed in the report. Even though we kept reminding him that his predicament would not be far from what emanated between the ACC and Parliament with regards the Auditor General’s Report on the management of the Ebola funds.
When will we have briefings from the ACC on the Paran Tarawalie and SLPP’s Hon Tawa as we use to have when we have corruption matters concerning the red guys.
The Commissioner is also now faced with issues around the $140 billion loss as report by the Audit Service Sierra Leone and how will his Commission approach this report where systemic looting and corruption has been exposed we are watching.
President Bio has won the March,2018 elections at the backdrop of fighting corruption and he has started with a sound footing but we are still reminding the ACC boss that his trap should start catching up with guys at the green camp.
The Commission still has an unfinished business with the Chief Minister. We want the facts as have been obtained by the ACC.