2018—USD 3,484,000
2019—USD 4,235,000
2020—USD 2,825,000
2021—USD 2,201,000
2022—USD 6,254,000
2023—USD 8, 2920,000
BUT BACK HOME, BIO OWES USD 27M ENERGY KAPOWERSHIP
By Alusine Fullah & Sulaiman Aruna Sesay
Since assuming office in April 2018, President Bio, his wife, and senior officials close to the president have conducted nearly 200 overseas trips to Europe and Asia; a record that exceeds that of any sitting president of Sierra Leone since the end of the country’s civil war in 2002. Very recently, a renowned lawyer, Augustine Sorie Sengbe Marrah disclosed overseas travelling of President Bio. He wrote:
“Data Image below shows overseas travelling of President Bio travelling costs incurred by the government of Sierra Leone in 2018 in USD terms…:2018—USD 3,484,000; 2019—USD 4,235,000; 2020—USD 2,825,000; 2021—USD 2,201,000; 2022—USD 6,254,000; 2023—USD 8,2920,000…”
In 2021, Africanist Press published details of government financial documents showing overwhelming evidence that the president and other senior government officials were moving foreign currencies amounting to millions of dollars to Europe, the United States, and increasingly, to the Middle East under the guise of diplomatic travel.
As it stands, it begs the question to ask why Sierra Leoneans are under constant blackout. This is more so when huge millions of USD are spent by H.E Bio in his overseas travelling.
Turkey Karpowership, Tuesday 9th April 2024, informed the Chief Minister, Dr. David Moinina Sengeh their intention to suspend their service if they are not paid by backlog by the 15th April 2024.
It was reported that the Karpowership requested that the government pay the US$27,102,555 which corresponds to the overdue amount for their invoices from 2022 to 2023.
According to a renowned journalist, Amadu Lamrana Bah wrote in his tweeter page, it is worrying that even when we pay for electricity our government cannot raise such an amount to pay a service provider. He added that, a source at the Ministry of Finance has confirmed that we are having serious financial constraints in the country.
He stated that, this is why he raised concerns about judicious spending of our resources. Flying to conduct lectures overseas, buying new vehicles, and bloated wage bills by giving everyone jobs where they negotiate their salaries are definitely causing pressure on a very constrained economy. “But wae we tok man dem dae vex but as Emerson Bockarie said, we will stick to the plan of holding people accountable,” he noted.
According to him, he heard the President has given those in the energy sector a week to fix this crisis or he will take over the sector. “If we sleep tiday ehn wake tumara nar ten days now without electricity flash in our houses,” he elaborated.
