Ex-president Ernest Bai Koroma
By Ralph Sesay
The Governance Transition Team yesterday presented its report to President Bio at State House in Freetown .The report which contains a number of findings on the Economic and Finance, Governance, Social and Human Development etc has recommended that Former President Ernest Koroma and Ex-Ministers of his government mentioned in the report for allegedly misappropriating State funds should not be allowed to travel out of the country except with permission from the Office of the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice.
The report presented by the Chief Minister, Professor David Francis, who doubles as Chairman for the Transition Team together with other members of the team has catalogued a number of findings relating to the sale of the Government 30% shares of Sierra Rutile Mining Company to an Australian based Illuka Mining Company by the former President and his cousin John Bonoh Sesay, former Chief Executive of Sierra Rutile for 12 million United States Dollars, Sales of Government Assets, Lands and other property without following due process, and the awarding of mining contracts to multinational companies exclusively exempting them from paying tax and other obligations mainly due to bribery and corruption of APC government officials.
The Transition Team made a number of recommendations to the government for immediate implementation and these include, the establishment of a special audit to unravel the details of the corruption issues discovered from the findings, setting up of a commission of enquiry to investigate and prosecute all those found wanting as indicated in the report. This is with a view, according to the chairman of the report ,to not only recover stolen wealth but also hand down long term jail sentences for those found wanting by the commission of enquiry.
The head of the team further noted that, they had during the process discovered substantive evidence of organized crime and racketeering enterprises by the Ernest Koroma government.
‘’They have exhibited complete disregard for law, constitutional order and democratic accountability in the rampant sales of government assets and property in the last ten years,’’ the chairman of the team noted.
The Minister of Finance, Jacob Jusu Saffa who also doubles as sector lead for the Economic and Finance pillar in the Governance Transition Team, stated that they as current ministers of government have discovered more impropriety in the management of the state by the past government than they ever imagined . Saffa noted that domestic and external debts stand out at 2.2 Billion dollars. He also reported that the government has inherited 500 million dollars in contracts, while arrears stand out at 1.4 million dollars or 10.8 trillion Leones.
Mr. Saffa also disclosed that they are closely looking at several contracts they had inherited from the APC, such as the Aggreko, Income Electric, NASSIT Ferry and other huge Infrastructure expenditure projects, as well as rent payments for government officials.
This, he concluded, has created problems for them as a government to spend outside statutory payments like salaries for the forces and other recurrent expenditures.
The media and civil society raised several issues and clarifications on the report. A member of the Campaign for Good Governance Marcella Samba Sesay cautioned the government to view the report from a politically neutral point, noting that this is about the future of the country and therefore every effort should be made to manage the process devoid of politics.