The former Foreign Affairs Minister in the current president Bio’s government Dr. Ali Kabba on Friday started his testimony about the alleged corruption matter involving Dr. Samurai Kamara and four others.

Dr. Kabba who is the eighteenth witness of the prosecution was also a former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sierra Leone to the 7noted Nations in New York.

He said Saidu Nallo, the first accused in the alleged Chancery Building corruption case, was Head of Chancery and had no working relationship with the second, third, and fourth accused inclusive of Samura Kanara.

He arrived in August to present his credentials and officially started working on 5th September 2019.
Dr. Kandeh Foday Bassie Kamara he said was the Financial Attache at the said mission by the time he arrived for duty.

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Led in evidence, the witness explained that in 2019, he immediately convened a meeting with the Diplomatic staff regarding the Chancery project among the briefing notes but didn’t see the Head of Chancery Mr. Nallo.

Before his arrival, Mr. Nallo had assured him through memos to the Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the project would have been completed and ready for operation by president Boi during the UNGA that same year.

He said when President Bio came into office, they inherited the problem of lack of payment for the project. Based on those memos, the minister of finance Jacob Jusu Saffa had been convinced to see the project, as he helped facilitate funding and save the country from embarrassment, as Mr. Nallo had earlier informed him about a potential lawsuit by the contractor against the government.

500,00 dollars he said was sent by the finance minister as an obligation of the state which was the beginning of his engagement in New York with the Chancery project.

He said as minister of Foreign Affairs, he consistently made all efforts to make sure funds were throwing for the completion of the project.
But to his disappointment, before the end of his tenure there he visited the said Chancery Project and found the project far from being ready for commissioning by president Bio as planned.

The unfinished walls and partitions he said have trash all over which from his layman’s assessment was not on the verge of completion.

In that regard, he immediately called for a meeting in which the contractor where the letter instead of talking about the completion, was rather requesting more money. He made it clear that more money had come in for the project and requested for clear work plan and timeline.

During the meeting, a woman was introduced as the Architect of the project who was later proven to rather be an interior designer and had no license for her to operate as an Architect.

He said he also discovered that the contractors have no competence and professional records according to the data business bureau and the office of the contractor was his house.

The wife of the contractor he said was also often in their meeting.
Having realized the project was not near completion, the witness summoned a meeting with the Chancery’s diplomatic team to wrap up the project.

Asked if he ever looked at the contract? He said he and his deputies made several requests for the contract document but they kept receiving excuses from the Head of the Chancery that the document was bulky.
But later on, he managed to see some pages of the said contract somewhere other than the Head of Chancery. He said he saw provision for architects and how payments should be done with the architect and who should authenticate it.

The former minister maintained that the Head of Chancery and the contractor dealing with the project prevented him as Head of Mission from accessing the building by padlocking the premises throughout the period.

Dr. Kabba said it was like the first time the building opened to him with the roof dripping water and wet walls. It was the understanding before his transfer there that the contractor was giving to do an additional 5th and 6th floor. He said he never took a paper to the cabinet for such additional floors costing the government $1.9 million, the reason there was no roof leaving everything that had been done to be destroyed after which the contractor agreed to do a cleanup at his own cost. The evidence in chief was Suspended at around 14: 50 and the matter adjoined to Monday 17th October 2022.