President Koroma Corrupt? Reasons why the Opposition was omitted from London Confab Exposed
News leaking out of the circles of the ruling All People’s Congress (APC) has revealed that the government deliberately left out the two opposition parties in the just concluded Investment Conference in London for reasons that SLPP in particular had plans to foil the success of the conference by exposing the corrupt nature of President Koroma and the APC government as has been evident in concerns of state corruption raised by the SLPP in a recent Memo addressed to President Ernest Koroma before the conference early this week. “We were made to understand that the SLPP was to use nefarious means to foil the success of the conference by making unnecessary inputs and hold a backyard press conference to sell contrary ideas as opposed to what was in the package that was to be sold to potential investors and donors” our informant preferring anonymity proclaimed in a meeting held with the editorial team of this medium.Â
However; concerns raised by the chief opposition party in the country cataloguing the President Koroma and his government as corrupt to the extent that activities by the government according the recently released SLPP memo on corruption in the ruling party “could potentially destroy all efforts in developing our country and quickly diminish the international goodwill Sierra Leone currently enjoys” cannot be easily dismissed owing to their serious nature.
Most of the concerns raised by the SLPP which could have been apparently used to expose the government in the just concluded confab assert that President Koroma is running a family based government wherein most of the lucrative contracts are awarded to his family members and close kinsmen. Others show that the president is paying lip service to his avowals that his government tolerates no sacred cow in his proclaimed fight to coil corruption in the country.
The document went further to support many of the concerns the Sierra Leone media has been raising in terms of corruption as in the “improper award of the National Power Authority (NPA) contract for the supply of electricity to Freetown by the Minister of Energy & Power, Afsatu Kabba”. Whilst not much has been heard of from the so-called-apparent corrupt free President Ernest Bai Koroma, it is also evident that the ACC investigated the matter only to prove that the contract was irregularly awarded; with cost and other conditions surrounding the deal proving not to be in public interest, which in very clear terms is tantamount to corruption in every sense.
According to the SLPP release, the “Ernest Koroma government was forced to renegotiate the contract bringing it to US$26 million from initial contract price of US$ 52 million” attesting to the irregular nature of the first deal the government struck with the service provider and if the assertion that an additional loan was raised in the tune of US$14 million without also going through the due provisions of the law, then the indictment of corruption in the Koroma government is very serious and denting.
Quoting the SLPP assertion, “there is also documentary proof showing that about US$1 million duty waiver was granted to Harmony Trading Company (now defunct) operated by your (President Koroma’s) younger brother – Sylvannus Koroma. Immediately it benefited from the waiver, Harmony Trading went defunct and metamorphosed into a brand new company known as Sierra Commodities Ltd.,” if this is so and its an established fact that Sylvanus Koroma is heading the Sierra Commodities that has benefited from series of government contracts and duty free concessions, then President Koroma cannot in anyway be aided in this matter, at best, he has to provide an explanation to the public and ACC. In the ACC act, it is clear that awarding public contracts to kinsmen and other relations could be tantamount to conflict of interest and thus a clear manifestation of corruption if proven. Ernest Bai Koroma must be probed. Â
It is also asserted that the Indian Government offered rice to the Sierra Leone Government to be sold at concessionary price to the public and was given to the same company headed by the President’s brother to manage but eventually found its way to the Dubai markets instead of the targeted beneficiaries in poor Sierra Leone. Sierra Express in possession of an Indian Article that uncovered the graft, are now beginning to have sacred cows or there were and are still the untouchable few? Ernest must explain this. It could be remembered that the Libyan rice syndrome which the SLPP dispensed of without proper explanation to the people of the country was one of the reason it was disgracefully thrown out after a sustained Ernest Koroma led campaign, using the issue.
Sierra Express is mounting up investigation on the various allegations brought by the SLPP against Koroma and his government of no scared cow.
Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!
© 2009, https:. All rights reserved.
