Recent reports of corruption in the public sector have shown that President Julius Maada Bio is considerably frustrated in the campaign against corruption in Sierra Leone.
In spite of the President’s commitment and pronouncement of a ruthless and relentless war on corruption, the scourge still continues unabated.
As corruption still permeates and pervades almost every sector of state governance, Sierra Leoneans question and critique actions, policies and programmes embarked upon by government in curbing corruption.
Sierra Leone came under spotlight for high levels of corruption following publications of investigation reports conducted by government.
The reports were also captured by an international media institution known as Africanist Press.
The Africanist Press publication looked at missing revenue with the Chief Executive Officer, Leadway Limited, Babadi Kamara at the helm of the allegations.
The Africanist Press relied on government audit reports into the financial activities of the Bio administration for the fiscal year, 2019.
The publication maintains that government could not account for revenue totalling Le2.1Bn collected from timber transactions for the fiscal year, 2019.
“A comparison between the timber cash book and bank statement shows that revenue for the export levy (receipt no.340197 totalling Le2, 101, 120, 000 (two billion, one hundred and one million, one hundred and twenty thousand Leones) was not paid into the appropriate bank account at the Bank of Sierra Leone,” the publication maintains.
For every timber transaction, the report states, export levy stands at US$2, 500 and afforestation which is US$350 should be paid per cubic metre.
It is observed that in January last year; two containers were exported, but only the afforestation fee of US$200 was recorded in the cash book and cash statement.
As a result, the report further states, export levy and afforestation fee of Le41, 854, 050 (US$5,000) and Le4, 185, 405 (US$500) respectively were neither banked nor recorded in the cashbook.
Auditors also report that Leadway 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 requires that an exporter of any timber or timber products 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.
Having exposed high financial leakages in the timber sector, the report also looked at heavy sums of missing foreign tax money.
An internal fraud investigation instituted by management of Sierra Leone’s National Revenue (NRA) on the collection of foreign travel tax showed that Le3.2Bn went missing.
The investigation revealed a pattern of missing tax revenues and failure to collect billions of Leones in outstanding taxes from foreign airlines operating in the country.
“Based on the fraud investigation carried out by management of NRA, it is observed that staff issued receipts to airlines or agents of airlines for revenues that were not in the bank statement,” a report on the investigation states.
The publication also indicates that some airlines and their agents were paying FTT into commercial banks rather than the designated FTT account.
“As a result, for 2019, a total of Le3, 208, 245 purported to have been paid into the Zenith Bank and Standard Chartered Bank was not in the bank statement,” they noted.
In a related development, a Forensic Audit Report presented by the Auditor General’s Department also indicated that hundreds of millions of Leones remain unaccounted for.
Several Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA’s) of government came under fire for allowing such heavy financial leakages.
At a conference at the Cathedral House in Freetown, head of ACC allayed public fears that the Forensic Audit Report would not be swept under the carpet.
The totality of the scathing reports on corruption manifests a betrayal of President Julius Maada Bio who promised Sierra Leoneans and the international community that he would stop financial leakages in the country’s public service.
The President during his campaigns assured Sierra Leoneans that the country would prosper with the stoppage of leakages.
The current SLPP Government canvassed Sierra Leoneans to believe that corruption has been the main problem of governance and factor that caused the civil war.
They also claimed that it is the greatest threat to national progress and development as well as posing the biggest threat to national stability and security.
From the highest echelons of political office, they say, to the justice and security sectors, from the streets to the hospitals and classrooms in almost every facet of public life, there seems to be corruption.
As the trend of damning corruption reports continue against government, questions are being directed at the country’s graft agency, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
But, ACC says, it has always gone after government officials accused to have misappropriated public funds being state money.
A press release dated 16th October, 2020, ACC states it position clearly that it is vigorously investigating those officials who allegedly bore a hand in the missing Le3.2 Billion FTT.
The ACC have named some revenue officers: Abu Bakarr Sidikie Kamara, Mariama Ballah Conteh and Jeneba Sesay to have allegedly misappropriated the said sum.
“The ACC findings established between March, 2018 and September, 2019, Revenue Officers, Abu Bakarr Sidikie Kamara, Mariama Ballah Conteh and Jeneba Sesay in the Report Processing and Return Payment Department of the National Revenue Authority misappropriated a total sum of Five Billion, Three Hundred and Eighty-Two Million, Nine Hundred and Forty-Four Thousand, Six Hundred and Five Leones (Le5, 382, 944, 605) of public revenue, being Foreign Travel Tax , Royal Air Moroc,” the press release reads in part.
The ACC press release went further to state that it had recovered One Billion Leones (Le1,000,000) from one Travel Agency on settlement due to complicity of one of its staff in the scam.
The release also notes that the culprit staff has been sacked, and is out of Sierra Leone during the period of investigation.
Considering effort made by the ACC in the recovery of stolen money, the agency continues to assure Sierra Leoneans of the commission’s unwavering resolve to fight acts of corruption at all levels in Sierra Leone especially in revenue generating institutions.
But, some Sierra Leoneans also questions if the fight against corruption will satisfy the President and the people of Sierra Leone.
The question has bearing on the workload the ACC grapples with owing to a number of corruption of reports that need to be attended to.