The issue of Board Chair at the National Revenue Authority has become a topical discussion in certain circles ever since the substantive holder of the position Tuma Jabbie decided to vie for the Presidency of the Bar Association of Sierra Leone.
With Jabbie’s victory in the election last Saturday in Kenema, it’s certain a new Board Chair for the country’s foremost revenue generating entity will be required soon.
Former Transport and Aviation Minister Kabineh Kallon has suddenly become the target of sections of the media who have linked him with the vacant position.
This press has been unable to reach Kallon but sources close to him have denied claims that he has been having meetings concerning the NRA Board Chair job.
What infuriates Kallon’s close confidantes is that at no time had the man discussed anything about NRA and they assert that he has been living a quiet life since he left his ministerial position.
Another false claim being directed at Kallon is that he has vowed to re-instate certain NRA officials who were transferred to other departments of the Authority during the tenure of a former Commissioner-General.
Concerned Sierra Leoneans are asking the question: Are we to suggest that what has emerged as a co-ordinated media campaign of deceit against Kallon is being spearheaded by those who benefitted from the said former Commissioner-General’s postings and are fearful of the decision being overturned by an incoming Board Chair?
If that is the case, then it is clear that those individuals occupying those positions could have been embroiled in shady deals that might be unearthed if they were to be removed, hence their desperation to embark on a campaign of calumny against Kallon who they assume is earmarked for Board Chair position but who this medium believes has no bearing whatsoever on what is going on at NRA, let alone the pending vacant position.
When people at taxation and customs start throwing spanners into the works just to keep their jobs, then that raises more questions than answers. They are not employing the services of certain media houses for free. Where do they get the cash to fund their image-laundering campaign in the media that is being directed at the innocent Kallon, many people would want to ask?
It is high time the Anti-Corruption Commission focuses its radar at NRA particularly down the ports where goods are subjected to tax evasive techniques, all this through the collusion of some of these very ill-intent persons, who deprive the government of much needed revenue that could have gone into addressing the numerous development initiatives of this regime.
Why should people be disturbed about their fictitious assumptions over someone coming to take over the Board Chair position at NRA, if they do not have self-aggrandizing interests, coupled with skeletons in their cupboards that they are fearful about?
People should stop feeding lies to the media, degenerating into incessant and unnecessary attacks on the very personality of Kallon; he doesn’t deserve such disrespect.
By the way if God has singled him out for another stint at public service, who can deny him that? No one!
