By: Mohamed Sahr
Saidu Nallo first accused person and formal head of Sierra Leone Chancery in New York entered the witness box before Justice Adrian Fisher at the High Court of Sierra Leone on Wednesday 26th July, 2023 testified to the court on the Chancery Building matter involving him, Adekalie Foday Suma (second accused person), Foday Vah Fomba Bawoh (third accused), Dr. Samura Kamara (fourth accused) and Dr. Kandeh Foday Basil Kamara (fifth accused).
Answering to the questions posed by the Defence Counsel Pa. Momoh Fofanah Esq, Saidu Nallo otherwise the first accused told the court that when he took office in December 2017 as head of Chancery, he encountered a problem with the building in terms of payment of contractors who was the Fair Free Construction Associates. He confirmed that the initial architect of the job walked away from the work which had to do with payment and the party to the contract agreement was the Government of Sierra Leone via the Permanent Mission to Sierra Leone.
Saidu Nallo furthered that he was aware of the fact that the Fair Free Construction Associates headed by Jones Sander Davies had principal agreement on the contract of which the contractor had sub-contractors who were 3As Construction Company, Structural Engineer and the original contractor who did the entire building. Mr. Nallo said the contract was amounted to two million five hundred and sixty thousand Dollars ($ 2, 5060) and at that time, the said monies were not available to be given to Fair Free Construction Associates. He said after the structural engineer had inspected the building, he told the Mission and the Chancery that there was no cause to renovate the building because it had to be entirely demolished.
He added that before making payment, the Mission had to write to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sierra Leone in order to honour the payment and it would take five months for the monies to be sent to the Chancery in New York, America; noting that five hundred Dollars ($ 500) was remitted to Mr. Jones Davies which the Mission paid. Mr. Nallo mentioned that as soon as the monies were paid to the Fair Free Construction Associates, there were disputes between Willy and 3As Construction Company which was internally between the two parties. The First accused informed the court that subsequent payments were made in trenches and the first trench was received in June 2019 with a sum of eight hundred thousand Dollars ($ 800).
When asked about the procurement processes at the Chancery, he told the court that they only had a title purporting to be a procurement unit but they did not have procurement unit during the time he was heading the Chancery. He said the accountants better still the third and fifth accused persons were neither procurement persons nor procurement secretaries. He emphasized that any time they wanted to make payments, they have to hold an in-house meeting and thereafter they would make payments to Jones Sander Davies head of Fair Free Construction Associates and he in return would acknowledge receipt of the payments.
He continued that David Monteque who was the head of Empire Group Construction Company intimated them of making additional floors to the building and the Mission informed Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Freetown about the addition of two floors. At that time, he said the contractor budgeted 3.3 million Dollars for the addition of the two floors because of increment in wages of the labour force in New York and the Mission made a fix agreement of two million Dollars. Mr. Nallo stated that they settled on one million nine hundred Dollars ($ 1.900). However, two major interruptions broke prominent one was the outbreak of the COVID 19 in 20219 which prevented the work. He said the Mission sent a letter to Freetown for the monies to be honoured.
As the testimony by the first accused person got heated, Pa. Momoh Fofanah asked him whether he was feeling good due to his (first accused person) health updates. Mr Nallo told the court that he could not seat either to stand in order to proceed with his evidence. Justice Fisher said to him that he needed to have a very good frame of mind to proceed. Therefore, Justice Fisher ordered the court to take a break at that juncture for subsequent time.
Justice Fisher assured the public that the court would finish the matter by December 2023. Tentatively, the matter was adjourned to the 23rd August 2023.
The State Counsels for the matter were C.T Masinbo Esq and D.V Robin KAS Conteh Esq.