By Amara Thoronka
Social media was on Wednesday, 24 January, 2024 awash with photos and videos displaying a whopping 4.3 billion Old Leones, representing an accumulated total of 8.6 billion Old Leones. The said sea of money was recovered by the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) from an alleged corruption matter involving some staff at the Ministry of Finance and the Sierra Leone Roads Authority.
Showcasing part of the recovered money at a press conference held on 24th January at the Integrity House, Francis Ben Kelfala Esq, the ACC Commissioner commended the leadership of Finance Minister Sheku Ahmed Fantamadi Bangura for his ‘professional and patriotic’ role in investigating and exposing the corrupt act, leading to the arrest of suspects from whom the money was recovered.
“The Ministry of Finance, I must say, is being run by people, for the moment, who I believe mean good for this country. The Minister [Sheku Ahmed Fantamadi Bangura] and Mathew Dingie, who is the Financial Secretary, very professionally brought to our attention that some payment which was supposed to be sent to an accounting firm had been intercepted by some people and that they withdrew the money which was supposed to go to an account at Rokel Commercial Bank in Freetown and sent it to Kabala Community Bank and later withdrew it. They [Finance Minister and team] did their investigations very professionally and forwarded a report to us.
Based on that report, we moved very swiftly, and in less than two hours, we arrested everybody concerned, starting with the ringleader who was a certain Emmanuel Smart and then arrested a few other people at the Ministry of Finance and brought them to the Commission,” the ACC boss explained.
The ACC Commissioner said, for so long in the history of the country, citizens have trust issues with people serving in positions of trust due to several proven records of corruption. “The country, for so many years, has been led on the foundation of untruth, deception and extreme dishonesty; so, the people have the right to feel the way they feel. People have the right to react the way they react because Sierra Leone has been traumatized,” he noted.
He stated that, with the moves by the ACC and the political will of the President in fighting corruption, the country is on a positive change trajectory.
“Whether you believe it or not this country is at a tipping point towards change forever. It may be slow in your eyes because we humans like to think big and people may thing the fight against corruption is small; but even small things when accumulated lead to big things. So, it may not be fast and drastic enough for you, but what is more important is the consistency over time in the fight against corruption,” he expressed, adding that President Julius Maada Bio has always given the Commission the free hand to do its job.
He recollected that, before he took up the job as ACC Commissioner, he sat with President Bio and discussed issues bordering on corruption and governance. “I have no doubt in my mind that he [the President] is committed in the fight against corruption. Sometimes, to bring about change, you have to be careful, strategic and balance a lot of things out,” the lawyer voiced.
Kelfala Esq. disclosed that he had conversations with those involved in the 8.6 billion Old Leones fraud and asked them why they think they should take such amount from state coffers and use it for themselves while people are suffering.
He said the ACC has done so much in fighting corruption, but that the menace continues to be alive and kicking.
“There is nothing we have not done. We have arrested people. We have detained people. We have dozens of cases in court and trials are ongoing. We have recovered from them over Forty-Five Billion Old Leones. We have recovered houses. We have spoken on almost every radio, television and other media. There is no university in this country in which we have not done a public lecture on corruption. The team at the ACC don’t sleep. Sometimes, I stretch them so hard,” he lamented.
He advised that: “As a country, and as a people, we have to understand that the collective is better than the individual. We have to break away from the past.”
Francis Ben Kelfala reminded journalists that he and the Commission don’t have control over the President or what he can do and therefore cannot dictate his work. “I am not the chief executive of Sierra Leone. There is a president whose role is clearly spelt out by the constitution and nobody should expect me to usurp that. He [the President] is a very listening man,” he cited.
He said it is a novelty for people to repay millions and billions of stolen money from the State.
The ACC has recently been investigating a myriad of corruption cases in high government places, including Parliament, NRA, SLBC etc.
Copyright –Published in Expo Magazine, February Edition, Vol.2, No.2, 2024 (ExpoTimes News – Expo Media Group (expomediasl.com)
