By: Aruna Kamara (BO)
Veritas Foundation has given a detailed reason to terminate its support to the Paul School for the Blind after spending over $250,000 US Dollars to the physically challenged school; backed out on the grounds of alleged corruption by the Headmaster of the School, Mohamed. S. Conteh.
Speaking to A-Z Newspaper in a telephone interview, the Co-Founder, Executive Committee Member and Board of Directors of the Veritas Foundation, Kenneth F. Diebner said that “it was nice to hear how you are working to reveal the truth regarding the charges of corruption that were leveled against the Headmaster of the Paul School for the Blind School by the Audit Services Department of the Sierra Leone government. While some choose to distract the public from the truths uncovered by this Audit Report and work to shift attention off those charged with these crimes, it is refreshing to see you present the facts in a public forum and then let your readers or people decide the truth for themselves. To that extent, I wanted to share the truth behind our termination of services to the school.”
Mr. Diebner said that members of the Veritas Foundation have been coming to Sierra Leone since July 2015 to offer financial, material, and spiritual support to widows, orphans, disabled, and those less fortunate living in and around Bo. In 2016, he said they Headmaster of the Paul School for the Blind, Mr. Mohamed Conteh, and documented the needs of the children at the School.
Again in 2017, they engaged in their first project by building a water filtration system to provide clean drinking water for the children and in subsequent years beginning in 2019 and extending through July 2022, they funded numerous repair projects and invested in key support programs including a 3 meal-a-day Feeding Program, and a fully funded Healthcare and Hygiene program.
He continued that they also built a fully equipped Kitchen and Laundry to help meet the growing needs of the children. During this time, they also funded two preventative Healthcare Clinics for the children and staff at the school and built a playground where the children could engage in activity that would foster social and physical development.
Throughout this period, Veritas also purchased a New Vehicle to transport the children to and from school, and purchased a Generator, Beds, Mattresses, Bed Linens, Bed Nets, Clothing, Audio Bibles, Braille Bibles, Braille Writing Tablets, and Voice Recorders, to name just a few of things that our donors contributed for the benefit of the children. Along with these material donations, Diebner revealed that they also employed more than 18 Sierra Leone residents to provide physical care and support to the school. In total, the Veritas Foundation has invested over $250,000 US Dollars to these programs, but sadly, we were forced to terminate all services as of August 31, 2022.
Mr. Diebner allude his statement to marital life marriage, that in the earlier years of their relationship with the school they were allowed to know each other. During this time, there were good times and celebrations that will forever remain special to our mission teams, but like any marriage there were also stretches of difficulty.
“We enjoyed the good times, and we worked through the difficult times until we read the Audit Committee’s formal report which documented numerous corrupt activities and misappropriation of funds by the Headmaster. To any individual who reads this report, which was compiled by the Acting Auditor General of Audit Services Sierra Leone, the findings would be highly concerning; however, to a US-based Non-profit charitable organization, such as the Veritas Foundation, who is also accredited by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability(ECFA), these finding forced us to take actions that were painful but necessary.”
He said Veritas Foundation is formally recognized by the US Department of Treasury, Internal Revenue Service, as a 501(c)3, Non-profit charitable organization, similar to what you refer to as an NGO. As part of the guidelines for US-based charities we “must exercise oversight regarding the use of currency for the intended charitable purposes.” Furthermore, these guidelines state that we must “protect the resources from diversion to non-charitable purposes or exploitation by corrupt organizations…” These guidelines also clearly state that we must “correct any misuse of resources and terminate the relationship should misuse continue”.
Similarly, the ECFA reviews the finances, policies, and activities of select non-profit organizations, such as the Veritas Foundation, and if those organizations can meet the strict regulatory requirements set forth by ECFA, they will accredit the organization. Since such accreditation is critical to building public trust and confidence in any organization, companies like the Veritas Foundation go to great lengths to ensure that they do not only meet the recommendations set forth by the US Department of Treasury, but that they also work diligently to meet the requirements of ECFA.
Mr. Dibener noted that similar to the US Department of Treasury, the ECFA dictates that we are to be good stewards of public trust and must always act for the good of the organization. We must not engage in any activities or ignore corrupt activities that would put the organization at risk. As such, we have a responsibility to ensure that all funds are accounted for in a transparent and compliant manner. Since the Audit Report clearly states that the Headmaster has not properly accounted for the funding that he received from the Government’s Subvention or from other donor sources, we could not ensure that he would be a good steward of our resources.’’
In order to prevent the Veritas Foundation from losing its Non-profit status with the US Department of Treasury and to remain compliant with ECFA, he said ‘’ we were forced to terminate our relationship with the Paul School for the Blind; however, before we did so, we met with the School Management Committee, the Deputy Director of the Ministry of Education and the School’s Proprietor to discuss this situation at great length. We informed these individuals that we would be forced to terminate our support as of July 31, 2022, unless they agreed to either reassign the Headmaster to another school or terminate his employment.
During the time leading up to the official termination date, we met with each of these groups and individuals several times to address this situation, but none of these meeting led to the dismissal of the Headmaster. On July 31, 2022, we formally terminated our relationship; however, we continued to extend financial support for an additional 30-day period in hopes that such would give the authorities enough time to take the necessary action that would allow us the opportunity to continue support for the school. Unfortunately, here we are 5 months later, and the Headmaster is still employed by the Paul School for the Blind.
“We are truly heartbroken that the children who reside at the Paul School for the Blind are caught up in this mess. It is not our intention to hurt the children, but we cannot jeopardize the future of our Foundation by continuing to support an organization known to engage in corrupt activities as documented in the Audit Services Report.’’
A-Z Newspaper made a reason effort to contact the Headmaster, Mohamed Conteh in question to react to the allegation of misapplication of funds but indicated that he has been using the funds of the school for the intended purpose as there are visible signs of improvement in the school.
A-Z Newspaper also made frantic effort to get to the Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Dr. Moininah Sengeh to know what he is doing to look into the corruption allegation, he has not respondent to the text sent to him by our reporter.
The Head of the Public Education Department of the Anticorruption, Patrick Sandy has not still responded to the text also sent to him to know so far how the investigation into the alleged corruption is going on, as the Regional Office of the ACC has obtained statements from parties relating to this allegation of corruption at Paul School for the Blind.
More to this as it unfolds.