Anti-Corruption witness testifying in the ongoing Sierra Leone Permanent Mission Chancery building renovation matter at the High Court of Sierra Leone, involving Dr Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara and five others on Wednesday 21 September 2022 named and implicated a high profiled ruling party politician in the continuing prosecution.
Allan Ebu George, the fourteenth prosecution witness, made the disclosure during his cross examination by defence counsel representing the 1st and 3rd accused, M. P. Fofanah Esq., at High Court No. 2 presided over by Hon. Justice Adrian Fisher.
George informed the court that the former Sierra Leone Permanent Representative at the United Nations, New York in the United States of America, Dr Alie Kabba, received and saved One Million Dollars into his personal account.
He said that a charitable partner donated the sum of Two Million United States Dollars towards the reconstruction and renovation of the Sierra Leone chancery building in New York.
the PW 14 told the court that the then permanent representative to the mission, Dr Alie Kabbah received the sum of One Million United States Dollars into his personal account and that the mission never received the full $1M.
He made this disclosure during a cross examination with defence Counsel for the 1st and 3rd accused persons respectively MP Fofanah Esq at the high court no.2 in Freetown.
Led in evidence by lead prosecution lawyer for the ACC, C. T. Matsebo, the PW 14th disclosed that he is a resident of the US and employed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Corporation. He said he is the Minister, Councillor at Sierra Leone UN Permanent Mission, and added that he was originally stationed from 2015 to 2020 and then reposted in August 2022 and prior to this position, he was the Counselor.
PW14 identified all accused in the dock and their former respective designations, saying he was involved in terms of sending reports directly to the Director General and Minister of Foreign Affairs and international Cooperation.
Meetings, he said, were chaired by the former Ambassador to the UN, Dr Alie Kabba, and the contractor was always in attendance as the subject matter discussed during those meetings were updates on the building and timeline for the completion of the chancery building, and he took minutes of those meetings.
George said that there was a procurement committee for the chancery building but this committee became ineffective and the 1st accused being head of chancery revived the committee which he said was securitised with members like the 5th accused Mr Foday Basil Kamara, a Military, Financial Attaché and more.
He furthered that not all disbursements he was preview to and at the time Dr Alie Kabbah took up over, there was a stop work order and COVID-19, and upon taking over, a major work was done on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floors with electricity and toilet facility in effective use.
George said the 4th floor had a staircase construct to it, as he said findings were not coming in regularly.
When asked if these monies were paid, PW14 replied that to his knowledge he is unaware if these monies were paid by then. He said Dr Alie Kabba was the Permanent Representative to the chancery building.
George also disclosed that there are video footages when the building was demolished and when it was constructed and that before payments were made there has to be a requisition.
Defence Counsel for the 4th accused A. Koroma Esq. inquired of the witness due to the demolition and reconstruction of the building led to a change in cost of the project to which the witness agreed that the cost for the project changed naturally and also inquired of him how many building accounts was setup for the project when he was questioned by the ACC, the accused responded that only one building account was set up and he was not aware of any other accounts set up nor funds that they were diverted.
PW14 testified that for every work done, the contractor submits a report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Corporation capturing work done, amount utilised, next stage of the project and amount for the next stage of the project and that all payments made were documented.
“Since I left the commission in 2016-2020 over 2M USD was paid to the contractor on diverse dates, said the witness who also said the second 2M USD that was paid to the 4th accused he was no longer a minister.
