There is a proverbial saying, “when the cat is away, the mouse will play.” This appears to confirm sources at the Immigration Department that while the Head of the Department, Hon. Alusine Konneh, is out of the country, the condition of the department and staff members performing their duties have fallen to such abysmal level that, it is severely impacting on the department’s clients who in the majority happen to be Sierra Leonean citizens.
Word reaching Nightwatch Press from reliable sources at the nation’s Immigration Department is that the department went for seven days without electricity.
This medium was informed that employees and others at the department’s Gloucester Street headquarters were reporting to work despite the lack of power to effectively carry out their duties.
“People who know the head of immigration would tell you that this is a case of sabotage. The new boss at immigration is a reformer. He has reformed the department and because of that has created a lot of enemies, right under his nose,” said one of our sources at immigration.
Our sources informed that after Hon. Alusine Konneh took over from his predecessor Jaia Kaikai, he has effectively blocked all avenues and potential avenues for financial leakages at the department, adding that Konneh is a disciple of president Bio’s and his anticorruption manifesto promise of his party government.
“Since Hon. Alusine stopped all the places and holes those responsible for stealing from the department and government were making their ill-gotten wealth he has become an enemy at the department. But he has not been deterred. But since he travelled his deputy has not been up to the task as they went for a whole seven days without electricity at the immigration headquarters,” noted one of our sources.
Customers and other clients at the department that spoke to Nightwatch on the blackout at Immigration asked if the deputy head of the department and others didn’t notify EDSA to rectify the power outage.
“We were told that power was cut off by EDSA due to current leakages from exposed cables in light of the on-going rain. They informed us that EDSA had to cut power off to the building to prevent injuries, death or fire at the immigration headquarters. But what did these government workers did for work for seven days?” asked a client at the immigration.
Meanwhile workers reported for work for the seven days without current despite not being able to provide a wide range of services to the public. Many upset Sierra Leoneans said they missed out on work, travelling, healthcare and business opportunities because of the lack of work that resulted from the seven day power outage at the Immigration department.
“People who needed their first passport because they were travelling for school, business and hospital services outside the country suffered the most. There were those who also came to get a lot done here that had to return almost every day hoping that the problem would be resolved, but it wasn’t until after seven days. This brings to mind what did NETPAGE that prints our passports do to restore power back to this building?” asked an immigration employee.
Department employees told Nightwatch that the price of a passport is still $100, although the cost of the Leone to the dollar has risen from Le750 to Le2500 since Netpage allegedly won the contract.
“We had the situation where people reported for work for a week but didn’t perform their duties. Passports and other services were not available to the people for over five days and yet no one at the Immigration could get the situation resolved the same day considering the importance of this office to all claims of citizenship and travelling in and out of the country,” stated a Sierra Leonean at the Gloucester Street Immigration office.
Meanwhile Hon Alusine Konneh has been credited with reforms at the immigration in line with his mandate. Speaking on his reforms at a government press briefing not long after taking over at the Immigration Department, he said, “When I took over the Immigration Department, there was a problem of overcrowding, mostly caused by poor accommodation, and unauthorised volunteers who were engaged in unscrupulous activities. That is now a thing of the past. We have upgraded our passport application forms to include the NIN number. That has enhanced the security features and will now ensure that Sierra Leoneans, and not foreigners, obtain our passports. Very soon, our digital transformation would ensure that Sierra Leoneans in Washington or London do not need to go to the embassies or have proxies to get their passports.”
Hon. Alusine Kanneh ended the briefing reaffirming the Immigration Department’s unwavering dedication to transparency and accountability. He pledged to uphold the highest standards of integrity in all operations, emphasising the imperative of public trust in governmental institutions.