Nabih Basma, the owner of West Star and Royal Enterprises Companies, who was implicated in the corrupt US$15 million arms deal for the supply of military vehicles to the Sierra Leone Army by the Governance Transition Team Report (GTT), has increasingly become the blue-eye boy of the New Direction.
The multi-billion businessman is said to have clandestinely bagged a huge number of high profile contracts, which have amounted to billions of dollars, from the New Direction Government. This is despite the fact that the GTT report has asked that the businessman be reprimanded and caused to refund billions of dollars to the Government of Sierra Leone. Nabih Basma allegedly colluded in dubious transactions with Paolo Conteh, Sierra Leone’s former Defence Minister.
A Financial Audit Report ending 31st December 2014 has stated that Paolo Conteh and Nabih Basma had overpriced a military vehicle contract secured through sole sourcing by USD6.1 million.
The GTT report has also reviewed a number of other contracts, which all amounted to around USD190 million. The contracts were awarded to a small pool of vendors –with West Star being the most prominent –who happened to get most of the APC Government’s contracts. All the contracts were overpriced, sometimes by over 300%.One such contract involved the construction of a military barracks in Kambia. That contract was for USD 44m. It did not even specify the number of structures to be built…
It is the view of many Sierra Leoneans that the New Direction is not very practical and sincere when it comes to fighting corruption and anti-graft in the poor West African country.
Most of the dubious APC contractors, that have wrecked and brought the economy of the country to its knees, have succeeded in infiltrating the new system through the aid of unscrupulous politicians who are far removed from the President’s vision.
Procurement leakages and wastages, which were inherent in the previous APC Government, have been able to find a strong grip in the New Direction even when the President had campaigned on this premise.
Young, promising and untainted business entrepreneurs, who are very genuine and ready to promote the vision of the President, are being sidelined by corrupt politicians for their own selfish interest. Corrupt and crook Lebanese businessmen, who have milked this country dry in the past five decades or more, have succeeded in holding the country to ransom, once again, under the Rtd. Brigadier’s watch.
The Lebanese have fleeced huge sums of moneys through fake contracts, where they pay their masters with huge kickbacks at the detriment of the country and its people.
Nabih Basma and his cohorts, within the New Direction Government, are ever ready, than before, to infiltrate and wreck the New Direction and make it powerless to drive its national actions and programs.
A local businessman, who wants to remain anonymous, has referred to the present status quo, in the New Direction, as worse than the ten years of APC rule. Wow.
He has described the desperation for kickbacks, in the award of contracts in the new dispensation, as being very alarming. He called for President Julius Maada Bio’s intervention to be able to protect the local industries and businesses.