By Alusine Fullah

The Ministry of Finance has just issued a press release that a total of 6.5 billion (old Leones) was fictitiously paid to an account that was opined at the Kabala Community Bank. The essence of the foregoing amount of money is for the construction of the Keneba-Pendembu Road. The release states: “The Ministry of Finance (MOF) wishes to inform the General Public that following the conduct of an internal audit review on several payments made in favour of Edward Davies and Associates Ltd, a Consultancy Firm hired by the Sierra Leone Roads Authority (SLRA) for work done on the construction of the Kenema-Padembu Road, we discovered that these payments were diverted to a fictitious account opened at the Kabala Community Bank…”

According to the release in December, 2023 a total of Le6.5 billion (old Leones) was processed at the Accountant General Department (AGD) for the payment to Edward Davies and Association Ltd.

Nevertheless, after several investigations, the Ministry of Finance identified the following names as suspects for the alleged diversion of funds. The names follow:

1. Jacob Tenga Sessie, Deputy Director of Budget, MOF
2. Emmanuel Smart-Accountant Officer, SLRA
3. Starlyn Kemoh- Accountant Officer, SLRA
4. Ibrahim Bangura, Senior Accountant, AGD
5. John Ellie, Principal Accountant, AGD
6. Joseph Johnson, Accountant, AGD
7. Philip Yomba, Senior Accountant, AGD

The press release further noted that MOF has made a report on Monday, 8^th January, 2024 to the Anti-Corruption Commission to conduct a detailed investigation into the matter.

For the past years, corruption has been endemic at the Ministry of Finance. The Ministry of Finance is widely considered to be one of the most politically and economically corrupt institution in the Sierra Leone.