A press release from the Anti –Corruption Commissionstates that the Commission has secured the conviction of four officials of the Kenema City Council on various corruption charges ranging from abuse of office to misappropriation of funds.
The release states that Abubakar Sidique Turay, former Accountant, Moses Koroma, former Transport Officer inall of the Kenema City Council, and Mathew Amara Sesay, former Social Security worker at the Ministry of Social Welfare,Gender and Children’sAffairs, eastern region, “Between 22ndJuly, 2011and February, 2012 the four convicts misappropriatedpublic funds amounting to twenty seven million,five hundred and nineteen thousand leones (Le 27,519,000,), being monies meant for the operations of the Kenema City Council.”
Justice Sesay, the ACC release discloses, sentenced all four persons to three years imprisonment or to run concurrently or pay a fine of thirty million leonesfor each of the twenty one counts.
The presiding Judge, according to the release, further ordered that all four convicts should make full payments of the fines as a condition for their release from detention.
Lamin Lumah Mansaray, Regional Librarian, Sierra Leone Library Board Kenema, was acquitted and discharged as he was also standing trial in the same matter.
The release concludes by reassuring thepublic of its commitment to ensuring that public funds are protected and where necessary recovered.