By Alusine Fullah

The Ministry of Finance has on the 12th January 2024 confirmed that some staff at the Ministry has been involved into an alleged diversion of public Funds into a fictitious account opened at the Kabala Community Bank.

 Several sources have reached out to this medium that Jacob Tenga Senessie, Deputy Director of Budget, that it was he who connived with the Principal Accountant at the Accountant General’s Department, John Ellie, the Accounting Officer at the Sierra Leone Roads Authority, Emmanuel Smart, and other staff of the Accountant General’s Department to allegedly divert 5 Billion Old Leones ($270,000) to a fictitious account at the Kabala Community Bank as payments to Edward Davies and Associates for work done on the construction of the Kenema-Pendembu Road.

Several sources have also reached out to this medium that Tenga Senessie, Deputy Director of Budget has many a time misused his office for private gain. Looking at the Anti-Corruption Act of 2008 as amended 2022 it totally prohibits public officers to use their offices for private gain.

Section 44. (1) Subject to subsection (3) states:  “A public officer who makes use of his office or position for an advantage for himself or another person commits an offence and shall on conviction be liable to a fine not less than thirty million Leones or to imprisonment for a term not less than 3 years or to both such fine and imprisonment.”