Hon. Abdul Kargbo _ Opposition Leader
ACC Boss _ Francis Ben Kelfala
By Ibrahim Alusine Kamara (Kamalo)
Even though upon taking over the reins of power in 2018 the Maada Bio-led SLPP was all over the place decrying state corruption and promising to nip it in the bud, what entails now, six years of Bio’s governance sojourn, is reportedly more than disgusting, destructive and ghastly.
At the maiden press conference of APC Members of Parliament on Wednesday, 29th May 2024 at their headquarters office in Freetown, the Opposition leader in Parliament, Hon Abdul Kargbo, took time to make startling revelations about the cash loss or money in limbo so far under the Bio-led government with particular references to the annual audit reports during his time.
He said that no sooner the SLPP took over governance than they targeted operatives of the APC, especially those who worked under Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma.
Hon Kargbo stated how the SLPP was all over the place in a frenzy mood, arresting most of the APC operatives for what they alleged as not accounting for various sums of money as mentioned by the then annual audit reports.
The SLPP even used those audit reports as a scarecrow against those that worked in the Ernest Bai Koroma APC regime so that whoever made comments that were against the government was arrested or invited to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) for interrogation and unnecessary detention to silence dissenting voices.
According to Hon Abdul Kargbo, the APC incurred a cash loss of one hundred and four billion Old Leones (Le104,000,000,000) in 2014,, and sixty-five billion (Le65,000,000,000) in
2015, while the cash loss in 2016 was seventy-five billion five hundred million Old Leones (Le75.5 billion), and in 2017, thirty-seven billion two hundred million Old Leones (Le37.2 billion) was recorded as cash loss.
In 2018 under the SLPP, however, the cash loss was one hundred and forth billion nine hundred million Old Leones (Le140.9 billion), while in
2019, one hundred and seventy-seven billion six hundred million (Le177.6 billion) was unearthed as cash loss, alone outweighing all the cash losses in five years of the APC rule.
In 2020, the SLPP incurred a cash loss of one hundred fifty-three billion nine hundred million Old Leones (Le153.9 billion) while in 2021 one hundred and eighty-three billion seven hundred million (Le183.7 billion) and in 2022, the country incurred three hundred and twenty-five billion Old Leones (Le325 billion), reportedly being the highest cash loss ever experienced in Sierra Leone.
But the Opposition leader in Parliament said in the face of all of these scary financial losses, little or nothing has been done to call any government official to the ACC for interrogation and to make possible refunds.
“Was it not members of the opposition that were targeted and called by the ACC to answer to allegations of corruption? Now that it’s all over for the Opposition, has the ACC not become almost useless now; is the ACC calling anyone for interrogation or has it held accountable any of those government officials mentioned in the audit reports for such losses?” Hon Kargbo queried, and stressed that they as members of the opposition in Parliament will no longer keep mute over such financial anomalies because as the government in waiting the burden to rebuild the country will squarely rest on their shoulders when they take over governance and they will have nowhere to recover the colossal financial losses under the Bio regime should they go quiet.