June 1, 2021
Francis Ben Kaifala—ACC BOSS
By: Mohamed Jalloh
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has on the 31st May,2021 filed an indictment against Paul Sobba Massaquoi, Executive Director of the Sierra Leone Maritime Administration (SLMA),Peter Joseph Menjor, acting Director of procurement, Foday UK Dabor, acting Director of Finance, Harwell Williams, Quality and Assurance Manager, Victor Alpha Human Resource manager, Festus Musa, procurement supervisor.
The six staff of SLMA are charged on five counts of corruption offences including conspiracy to commit a corruption offence, failure to comply with applicable procedures and guidelines, knowingly misleading the commission contrary to section 127(1) (b) of the ACC act 2008, as amended by the ACC act of 2019 respect.
According to ACC, the charges are predicated on willful failure to conduct bidding process as required by section 37 and 39 of the public procurement Act of 2016, in regard the rehabilitation of SLMA headquarters.
The six accused persons are also charged with knowingly misleading the commission by making false statements to the investigators of the ACC.
Paul Sobba Masssaquoi, the Executive director of SLMA is also charged with abuse of office by improperly awarding a contract to rehabilitate the SLMA headquarters building without having a bidding process conducted in compliance with the bidding process conducted in compliance with the applicable procedures and guidelines relating to the procurement of works.
The six indicted persons are expected to appear in the high court of Sierra Leone at Freetown on Thursday 3rd June 2021.