By: Winstanley R. Bankole Johnson
The sheer frequency and scale of financial sleaze exposed in various MDAs since the start of this year alone is unimaginable. It’s appearing as concerted as it is simultaneous, creating an impression that some Executive Clearance for an “Operation Pay Yourselves” spree have been given to various heads of government agencies for them to plunder a bleeding economy that has been on life support for the last four years.
Humongous
And most disconcertingly it has impacted key Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), some of which per Audit Service Sierra Leone and other Investigative Reports have recorded humongous deficits or cash losses in the last twelve months like the Ministry of Finance (Le322Bn) the National Revenue Authority (Le45Bn), National Public Procurement Agency (Still unquantifiable), Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation (Le2Bn), and Parliament (again still unquantifiable ) etc. etc. Truth be told the amount of moneys lost under this SLPP regime through malfeasance in the last five years inarguably far exceeds the total captured by former Chief Minister Prof. David Francis as lost during almost eleven years of Ernest Bai Koroma/APC administration in their GTT Reports
Could it be safe therefore for one to conclude that this reckless and systemic fiscal plunder of our nation to reward themselves is because the Heads of all MDAs have come to a realization that Bio’s continued grip on the Presidency is irregular and temporary and that all of them would soon be kicked out of their respective posts anytime soon without recompense?
Fraud
My choicest pick of all is the fraud and forgeries perpetrated by no less a person than the Clerk of Parliament Mr. Paran Tarawallie and his spouse Mrs. Abibatu Tarawallie. The latter who, though not regularly on the Payroll of Parliament, has been allegedly collecting salaries and other emoluments such as Leave, Rent, Medical, Transportation, Per-Diem allowances following her names being fraudulently inserted into the Payroll of Parliament by her Clerk of Parliament husband, just like any other regularly employed person of the establishment, but of which she never was.
The exposure of Mrs. Abibatu Tarawallie’s fraud aptly befits the adage: “When rogues fall out, just people will get their due rewards”. Because the scam would never have been exposed if greed had not overwhelmed her Clerk of Parliament husband (Paran) to have unilaterally sacked and expunged the names of over a hundred regularly employed staffers (all allegedly of North-Western origins) from the Parliamentary Services Commission Payroll, just so as to illicitly replace all of them (allegedly again) with names of his South-Eastern kinsmen in typical SLPP Pa-O-Pa style.
Criminal
Now to the extent that the rogue pair have – according to the Anti- Corruption Commission – started refunding what they stole from the Consolidated Revenue Fund, denotes not only a clear ownership and admission of their crimes, but also as all criminal edicts would allow, they by doing so have evinced incontrovertible proofs that they were deliberate in the commission of the offenses (Mens Rea) as well as their being guilty of them as alleged (Actus Reus). And Paran Tarawallie of all people as the Barrister that never is ought to kno that.
As things stand both Paran Tarawallie and his spouse are jointly and/or severally guilty of the criminal offenses like Abuse of Office, Outright Fraud, Forgery and Uttering, Obtaining Moneys Under False Pretences, in addition to a separate offense applicable to Paran Tarawallie alone for “Decieving a Principal” (In this case the Rt. Hon. Speaker Dr. Abass Chernoh Bundu).
Unpardonable
One is therefore at a loss as to why given all these glaring pieces of evidence President Julius Maada Bio at whose wish and pleasure Paran can only continue as the Clerk of Parliament (Ref. Sec.82 (1) of the National Constitution) cannot find the fortitude to relieve him of that job.
What makes Paran’s criminality unpardonable is that as the Clerk of Parliament, Paran Tarawallie is the Chief Executive and Chief Administrator of the second highest arm of government and office in our country – The Legislature.
Has anyone given thought to the reputational risks and damage Paran’s dubios and diabolical acts are already causing this country at a time when the President is criss-crossing the globe in search of potential investors to fasttrack actualisations of his “5G Mega Flagships Dreams” of Feed Sierra Leone, Job Creation, Entrepreneurship, Infrastructure and Energy?
Who in his right mind would risk entrusting his/her/their hard-earned capital to nation state in which the Chief Custodian of our National Legislative Hansards is a proven criminal? Is it therefore any wonder that no matter how positively the ACC Commissioner paints their achievements in curbing corruption, as a country we are still not able to pass the MCC Corruption Perception Index?
Precedents
A further cogent reason why Paran Tarawallie should either voluntarily vacate the office of Clerk of Parliament or be instantly sacked by the President for his admission of criminality is that abundant precedents of that exist at the ACC already, that once guilt is admitted and settlement arrangements for refunds are arrived at with the ACC, the accused persons should not be allowed to continue in their posts as if nothing serious has happened- Ref. Haja Kalla Kamara and Mr. Bangura, erstwhile National Revenue Authority (NRA) Commissioner General and Finance Director respectively. After all what was good for the APC Goose should also be good for the SLPP Gander. Unless of course the ACC Commissioner now want to convince us that – as someone says – the institution has lost its “Tigritude” and is now a Prayer House in which all sins of SLPP members can be promptly forgiven upon confession and refund of illegally obtained wealth.
But even where for partisan politics reasons the government would appear to be dragging its feet as in this case, the ACC Commissioner should advise the President to relieve Paran Tarawallie of his job or at least get him to step aside, to avoid validating public concerns that the government’s fight against corruption is one-sided and targetting only the opposition APC Party’s members.