As they Return Stolen monies to the State… Corrupt Officials Granted Bail
About 7 Individuals including Emmanuel Smart, Accounting Officer at SLRA, Deputy Director of Budget MOF, Jacob Tenga Sessie, Accountant AGD, Starlyn Kemoh, Ibrahim Bangura- Senior Accountant AGD, John Ellie- Principal Accountant AGD, Joseph Johnson- Accountant AGD, Philip Yomba- Senior Accountant AGD have been found wanton for diverting public funds to a fictitious account opened at the Kabala Community Bank. These individuals have returned the stolen funds and being granted bail on Wednesday.
According to initial report, the 7 individuals were accused of diverting payments to fictitious Bank account meant for Edward Davies and Associates, a consultancy firm hired by the SLRA for the Construction of Kenema- Pendembu Road.
Sources within the ACC revealed that out of the 7 accused persons, 6 of them admitted to stealing the monies and paid back to the state having been detained for their crime.
The source, however, states that the suspects had been kept at CID for fifteen days, and after being refused bail, they went all out to refund the stolen monies by borrowing, and selling their properties.
“These suspects were using all kind of influence for them to be released, but the Commissioner of ACC, Francis Ben Kaifala, stood his grounds and insisting that the stolen monies must be refunded to the state”, our ACC sources told Voice of Salone Newspaper on Wednesday night, adding that based on this stance taken by the ACC Boss, the stolen monies were retrieved and returned to the state.
Explaining about the matter, the ACC Boss, Francis Ben Kaifala, said the issue was brought to their attention by the Ministry of Finance and the Commission upon receiving the report, wasted no time to launch an Investigation into the matter and bring all those involved to book.
“It’s in deed a sea of money recovered from the corrupt who had embezzled it in one of the cases we are investigating at the SLRA. 6 People admitted to stealing it and paid it back to the state having been detained for their crime pending investigations. It totals 8.6 Billion Leones recovered in this case alone”, Francis Ben Kaifala revealed.
