SLRSA BOSS OPENS PANDORA’S BOX
…Defending the Indefensible
By Ibrahim Alusine Kamara (Kamalo)
In a poorly written dispatch on social media titled, “SLRSA Boss Sets the Record straight as He commits to make the Institution an institution of integrity,” the author with the byline Umaru Kanu, attempted to react to and discredit the Salone Compass’ edition of Tuesday, October 15, 2014 with the frontpage banner headline, “MASSIVE CORRUPTION UNCOVERED AT SLRSA MOYAMBA STATION …ED in Desperate Cover-up”.
Through and through that dispatch, the author punctuated his work with grammatical gaffes in relaying his paymaster’s tirades against our medium but we would only spat at it as gibberish and show pity for the very author whose writing ability is inferior in the utmost degree.
His face being kissed by ignorance and kicked by simple comprehension, the author was to have the temerity dubbing that Tuesday publication “a total misinformation” even as his suspect paymaster conceded to the fact of our story that some system operators at the Moyamba Station were detected to have perpetrated a fraudulent act therein. And, though our story did not name any other station where such fraud took place, the Executive Director has now made the public to know that not just Moyamba but Pujehun and other stations too were involved, justifying how massive that fraud is.
Salone Compass further reported the setting up of a committee to investigate the issue, and that’s just what the Executive Director has confirmed to his spin doctor, just that we did not think an internal investigation was more appropriate than calling in the ACC to hook off the said System Operators for questioning as the Executive Director did in the income tax saga for the National Revenue Authority (NRA). A belief existed that reporting some workers to the ACC while invoking internal investigations for others is what was considered selective on the part of the Executive Director, and such selectivism is what ignited suspicions and allegation of micromanaging the said committee.
The author further informed his readers how the Executive Director, Rev Smart K Senesie intimated his medium of having “read the rubbish article” but a question is now being asked “what’s more of rubbish between reporting what took place and denying something that occurred?”
The ill-informed author quoted our Publisher’s message to his seeming paymaster thus: “Good Afternoon sir. This is Ibrahim of Salone Compass Newspaper.
I am investigating driver’s License fraud uncovered at the SLRSA’S Moyamba Station involving system operators adding extra features to the bank numbers in order to process multiple jobs with the same bank number without involving the ACC as you did for the NRA Income Tax fraud.
Also, records in our possession show that you are transferring staff who are not in your good books to departments that are not existing in your institution.
For instance, your recent transferred staff to departments such as Training, M&E and Climate change despite knowing that those departments do not exist in your institution.
I will appreciate if you could throw light on the above before publication.”
If to the Executive Director and his spin doctor the foregoing was not a good trait of ethical journalism or a journalistic best practice, one wonders what it is.
Knowing full well that SLRSA is a state institution, not a personal property of anyone, and as Salone Compass is a responsible medium, would not pamper and lull anyone bluffing around with serious allegations of that magnitude by not swiftly responding to our inquiries. However, as lewd as one may be would consider us going to press upon a nonresponse as irresponsible and unethical aiming to bring someone’s reputation into disrepute.
The lazy author quoted Rev Senessie as saying that “his quest to fight against corruption and make the Institution an institution of integrity remains unfettered and unchanged,” but this stands to be proven.
It could be recalled that the Executive Director of SLRSA had allegedly brainwashed His Excellency, President Julius Maada Bio to go public the other day through Parliament that the Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority had secure digitized number plates, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) vehicle licenses, digital record and fitness cards, and biometric driver’s licenses, including the decentralization of services with new electronic connectivity to outstations with reactivated emergency toll-free 244 call centre.
This was later slammed as inappropriate, leaving a feeling that such a hoax had the tendency to make the masses estimate the president a liar, as though the said outstations had been established, they were nonfunctional at the time, and could not be trumpeted about having electronic connectivity, or reactivated toll-free call centre. This was the time when the production of drivers’ licenses was also in recess and the driving community was strangling. Digital record and fitness cards were not also issued because driver’s licenses were not being produced, and were not available.
In a similar facade, was a press release by Rev Senessie’s administration not issued on 29th August, 2024, pronouncing an increment in the costs of licenses with an assurance that the new tariffs were going to be “effective on 2nd September 2024? But were the licenses available even after the drivers had paid the astronomical increment?
SLRSA was also investigated by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) over issues raised by the Auditor General in his annual financial reports for 2021 and 2022. Members of PAC in their wisdom ordered the Union Trust Bank branch in Kenema to pay four hundred sixty thousand New Leones or four hundred sixty million Old Leones into the SLRSA’s Account. This occured on September 4 2024, and it came as a result of the financial discrepancies of 471 million Old Leones between SLRSA and the bank that was stated in the 2022 Auditor General’s Report.
PAC further recommended the UTB Manager at the Kenema Branch to pay the sum of eleven million Old Leones within two months for negligence and lack of due diligence, and apart from this, he should not only be suspended but demoted and transferred.
In a seeming show of disregard for PAC’s relevance, did the Executive Director not treat its ruling and recommendations with utter contempt. He wrote in a post on social media to exhibit his toughness: “Good morning all. I had a conversation with Hon Tawa Conteh, the PAC Chairman, who had ordered that the HOS pays a fine, be demoted and suspended because he had thought it was negligence on his part. I was however able to explain that it was the HOS who picked up the fraud and reported the matter to management and that he was constrained to do a daily reconciliation since the bank was not giving bank statements for several months. On a positive note he accepted my plea to show mercy.
ED”
But when contacted for clarification, did Hon Ibrahim Tawa Conteh not dub Mr. Senessie’s claim as falsehood, stating that he had not spoken to Rev Smart Senessie on the issue after PAC’s decision?
Was not the same Executive Director at the center of accusations for shielding those held responsible for registering a right-hand drive vehicle in blatant contravention of the country’s laws? Though an internal investigation committee recommended for the major culprit, Arthur Brima, to be disciplined by dismissal, did the Executive Director act as was recommended?
It’s rather heart-wrenching that the institution’s revenue generation from its thirteen revenue streams is no longer appreciable, thus plunging that once government lucrative institution into economic quagmire to the point that even the payment of workers’ salaries, including meeting other financial obligations has become very difficult.
With all of this, is it convincing to hype about a quest to fight against corruption and make the Institution one of integrity?