By Ilyasa Baa
The Sierra Leone Scrap Metal Association (SLSMA) has called for enforcement against the illegal sales of copper belonging to government institutions and the Association is seeking the attention of the Inspector General of Police.
President of the Association, Abdulai Daboh in an interview with this medium, said they are planning to see the police boss and discuss with him the need for enforcement so that unscrupulous individuals will be stopped from buying or selling government copper.
He emphasized that the only legal channel to buy government copper is when it has gone through the bidding process.
He said as a responsible Association, there are bye -laws governing them, one of them being zero tolerance on government copper.
“We search for bidding and we apply to buy government scraps”, he pointed out, adding that one of the challenges their business is faced with is that some police officers and people purporting to be staff of the Trade Ministry harass them for the copper they legally acquire.
He said they have deployed their taskforce men all over the country to ensure that the scrapped metal business goes on smoothly without contravening the bye – laws set for members to follow strictly.
He stated that they want to train more men and expand the size of the taskforce to serve as watchmen in every corner. He expressed his dissatisfaction that they have tried to liaise with the Ministry of Energy but their effort turned fruitless. He said they are going to work with the Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority (SLRSA) to prevent the illegal sale of their copper. He highlighted that at every depot, a police officer and a taskforce guard is deployed to ensure that anything illegal is not loaded into the container before shipment.
The Taskforce Commander, Brima K. Sesay said they went through rigorous training by metal experts in the country. He said there are unregistered people out there trying to tarnish the good image of the Association that is why they formed the taskforce some two years ago to weed out the rotten fishes. He called on those interested in the metal trade to register with the Association which is formally registered and highly recognized nationally and internationally, he stressed. The scrapped medal trade has benefited over fifty thousand Sierra Leoneans and has helped in reducing the crime rate as this sector is believed to have been paying huge sums of money in tax to government thereby contributing to the consolidated fund used for the development of the country
