We have closely followed the unfolding saga at the Bank of Sierra Leone where a whooping sum of 15.42 Billion Leones was paid by the Director of Banking Mr. Jibao Flee to various contractors between the 1st April -8th June 2018 without the necessary authority.
The letter dated the 18th June, 2018 to the Minister of Finance by the embattled Bank Governor has made quite frank revelations which had exposed gross interference by certain individuals at the Ministry of Finance or some other highly placed in individuals in the management of the Bank of Sierra Leone.
Mr. Richard Conteh, the Bank Governor importantly stated that the Director of Banking the ‘’Rogue Banker’’ Mr. Jibao Flee ‘’was handpicked to lead a new team in the banking Department following very compelling allegations about his illegal dealings in foreign exchange at the Bank of Sierra Leone which came to light within few weeks of my assumption into office in July 2017.’’
This is very clear that the Director of Banking must have got the blessings of a godfather at the Ministry of Finance who had handpicked him to lead the new banking team despite his questionable character in past financial transactions at the Bank.
The actions of Mr. Jibao Flee to consistently omit Ten (10) out of the fifteen (15) payments he had made to various contractors from the ‘’Summary of Daily statistics of Government Treasury Position report ‘’ to the Ministry of Finance has been described as very much misleading and a premeditated action to mislead the Bank Governor and the Ministry of Finance from making timely and informed decisions on the meager funds available to the Government.
We are very certain that the Director of Banking was not alone in all of this due to the several weekly meetings between the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Sierra Leone.
Just like the Director of Banking was handpicked by some powerful persons behind the scenes to lead the new financial committee at the Bank of Sierra Leone ,it could also be very much possible that he must have been under some authority to make the payments he has made without recourse to his superiors at the Bank of Sierra Leone.
The leadership of the Bank of Sierra Leone was very sure that they were not aware of the payments Mr. Flee has made. Whatever investigations we are making now, we should be able to meticulously disclose these very powerful people who are working behind the scenes to stifle the management of the Bank of Sierra Leone.
The Ministry of Finance has quite been unsettled and this has got a tendency to rock the new direction. The Economy is still struggling to find its feet; the dollar rate is skyrocketing and we are hearing about a pending increase in fuel together with other economic issues.