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Sierra Leone’s Chief Minister, Professor David Francis has been accused of purchasing 3 Toyota prado cars in tune of Le1.8Billion for the Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI) without due process.
In a report shared on social media by Chernoh Bah, Editor of Africanist Press, He wrote; We hereby present you again with details of a procurement to the tune of Le1,876,061,250 that was paid directly to Salman Motors in Freetown by the Office of the Chief Minister during the last quarter of 2018. These payments were for the alleged purchase of three Toyota Land Cruiser Prado vehicles for the newly established Directorate of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI).
We found no evidence in the records of the Office of the Chief Minister to indicate that Salman Motors was awarded the said procurement contract from an open bidding process. In fact, the evidence we reviewed shows that an unusually high advance payment of Le 1,200,000,000 – more than 70% of the contract value – was made to Salman Motors on November 26, 2018, ahead of the supply of the three vehicles that were supposedly purchased for DSTI staff.
Apart from the lack of evidence of a bidding and tender process, there is also no evidence that an advertisement notice inviting other suppliers to compete for this contract was ever made by the Chief Minister’s Office. Evidence shows that the remaining balance of Le223,878,750 was paid on December 4, 2018, to Salman Motors to complete the payment of more than Le1.8 billion spent on the purchase of the DSTI Prado vehicles. We again found no evidence that Salman Motors actually delivered all of the three vehicles that were paid for.
Below are the payment details —-amounts, transfer codes, and transaction dates.
