A new wave of corruption has engulfed Office of Chief Minister, the most important ministry in the SLPP (Sierra Leone People’s Party) Government. The sum of Le34.2 Billion Leones is believed to have been spent by the Chief Minister in activities unrelated to the country’s development. The grand-scale corruption allegations come at a time Sierra Leone’s First Lady is battling with corruption allegations making the New Direction Government to crumble every passing day.
Corruption in the Office of Chief Minister takes the form of travels and per diem allowances amounting to several billions of Leones. Financial records obtained by a media institution based in the United States, Africanist press shows how the office of Chief Minister spent over Le34.2 Billion Leones (more than USD3.4M) and in less than years.
The said sum, the report noted, was spent, on media consultancies, per diem allowances and procurement of goods and services that failed to go through official competitive bidding process with open requests. The sum is huge and shocking and the latest revelation puts into disrepute the New Direction Government’s campaign against corruption in Sierra Leone.
It was also reported that the Chief Minister Office’s financial papers show that several wire transfers of hundreds of millions of Leones were made to foreign media agencies and Technology Company in Europe, China and the United States.
These transfers, according to the report, were for consultancies, public relations operations and information technology products. It was a negative side of the Chief Minster’s expenditure as none of the services and products were advertised or put on an open bid.
“Records of these large monetary transactions were non-compliant with Sierra Leone’s public finance laws and public procurement regulations,” the report reads in part. Sierra Leone’s laws and regulations on public finance and procurement respectively require that expenditures from the Consolidated Fund, the government’s account must be within the ambits of each procuring agency or department’s approved budgetary and procurement plan.
The Public Procurement Act of 2016, the current law that guides procurement, specifically provides that goods and services procured by a ministry or department must be included in the prior approved annual procurement plan for that entity. The law also provides that a procurement committee must be in charge of a procurement process.
The essence of the provisions in the procurement law is to ensure probity in the handling of public money. Despite the fine provisions contained in the law, Office of the Chief Minister has nakedly violated those laws in the name of corruption.
Evidence obtained by Africanist Press shows that procurement for goods and services were mostly undertaken on an ad hoc basis and in ways that openly violated public procurement regulations.
“These procurements included, for example, a total of Le1, 876, 061, 250 (about US$185, 000) that was paid directly during the last quarter of 2018 to Salman Motors in Freetown.
The money included the purchase of an alleged Toyota and Land Cruiser Prado vehicles for the newly established Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI). The Africanist Press Report also indicates that that an unusually high advance payment (Transaction IDFT1833061004) of Le 1, 200, 000, 000 (One Billion, Two Hundred Million Leones) (about US$120, 000) than 70% of the contract value was made to Salman motors on November 26, 2018 ahead of the supply of three vehicles that were supposedly purchased for DSTI staff.
Apart from the lack of evidence of a bidding and tender process, the report went on, there was also no evidence that an advertisement notice inviting other suppliers to compete for this contract was made by the Chief Minister’s Office. Evidence further shows that the remaining balance of Le223, 878, 750 (Two Hundred and Twenty Three Million, Eight Hundred and Seventy-Eight Thousand, Seven Hundred and Fifty Leones) (about US$22, 000) was also paid to Salman Motors on 4th December, 2018 to complete payment of more than Le1.4 Billion on the purchase of the DSTI Prado Vehicles.
It was also discovered that more than Le 1.2Bn in payment to Salman Motors did not include two earlier payments of Le200, 000, 000 (Two Hundred Million Leones) (about US$20, 000) and Le252, 182, 500 (about US$25, 000)Â made on 18th and 24th October, 2018 respectively for unstated purposes.
The report further notes that there is no record to indicate the purpose of the earlier combined payments totalling Le452, 182, 500 (US$44, 288) made to Salman Motors by the Chief Minister. The transactions between Salman Motors and the Office of Chief Minister are one of series of transactions that this article explores.
The report made another scathing discovery against Office of Chief Minister. Payments to electronic equipment amounting to Le657, 001, 800 (aboutUS$64, 000) were paid in 2018 to the House of Electronics, a local electronic supplier located in Freetown, with no evidence of bidding or open tender.
The Africanist Press publications also found out that at least Le188, 801, 550 (about US$ 18, 500) was paid to Fialiette Enterprises in Freetown for the refurbishment of the Chief Minister’s Office also without open tender or competitive bidding.
It was also discovered that a total payment of Le171, 306, 765 (aboutUS$17, 000) that was split into seven smaller payments ranging from Le12, 686, 625 (about US$1200) to Le42, 525, 000 each (about$4000) paid on a single day on 16th October of the previous year to Fialiette Enterprises in Freetown for similar services without any evidence of tender. In making such payments, Office of the Chief Minister to a large extent embarked on a sinister cover-up of cavalier attitude towards public funds.
For the most part, the report notes, split invoicing processes indicates a deliberate pattern of payments used to avoid the required thresholds of Le60, 000, 000 (Sixty Million Leones) and to Justify the lack of competitive bidding.
Specific reference was made to transactions conducted on December 27, 2018 where multiple wire transfers of smaller payments ranging between Le15, 120, 000 (about US$1500) and Le49, 896, 000 (about US$13, 700) were made on a single business day to a company listed as index enterprises.
It was also shown that no clear indication whether the listed index enterprises was the actual company that had been constantly receiving the wired transferred amounts. A similar pattern of SWIFT wire transactions to a Washington-based technology company, IMO Tech solutions LLC, for consultancy services was also discovered.
An outgoing SWIFT payment of Le212, 720, 750 (about US$21, 000) to the London-based media group, Beyond Words Studio Limited, to help arrange international public relations and image building campaign for the Bio administration. Beyond Words Studio describes itself as a multi-disciplinary team of journalists and researchers that use data visualization to create stories that connect people across countries.
Part of its work includes the design of convincing reports that convey powerful stories of progress at the United Nations Goalkeepers events. The group purportedly created the 2018 and 2019 motion graphic data and visualization that supported Bill Gates’ annual speech on reducing global poverty. It was also reported that the public relations provided by Beyond Words appears to have the goal of legitimising and building a positive image for the Bio administration.
Additional examination of the Office of Chief Minister’s financial records carried out by Africanist Press, shows that an outgoing SWIFT payment of Le223, 076, 000 (aboutUS$22, 000) was made to beyond Words Studio again on 11th June, 2019 for public relations purposes.
Another outgoing SWIFT payment was also detected by the US-based media agency. The payment which amounted to Le371, 200, 000 (about US$36, 000) was also made to Beyond Words Studio on 27th August, 2019 for the creation of an education data bub for Sierra Leone’s DSTI.
No evidence, the report noted, was found about whether the public relations agency went through the required competitive bidding process for any of the services it was contracted to provide since 2018. Office of the Chief Minister is the nerve Centre of the New Direction Government.
Its head, Professor David Francis headed a team of top government officials called the Governance Transition Team (GTT). By its nomenclature, the team was to ensure a peaceful transfer of power from the then government to the current government after the 2018 elections.
After examination of various ministries, departments and agencies of government, the team authored a report known as the GTT Report in which the former government was accused of corruption and reckless spending.
The report, to a large extent, castigated the former government of President Ernest Bai Koroma as one of the most corrupt since independence. The Koroma Government, according to the report, was seen as “a Criminal Racketeering Enterprise” whose loot plunged Sierra Leone into a dire economic situation.
Details of financial misappropriation catalogued by the report prompted the setting up of three commissions of inquiry to investigate the financial activities of the former government. The authorship of such report portrayed Prof Francis as an ambassador of probity in the management of public finances, but later turned out as an ambassador of corruption on a grand scale.
See next publication.