Post a comment 
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has reportedly uncovered an alleged large-scale scheme involving the fraudulent diversion of government revenue through transactions processed on the Automated System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA), with preliminary investigations pointing to losses running into hundreds of billions of Leones.
Global Times Newspaper reports that findings from the ongoing investigation indicate that the ACC arrested and detained ten suspects in connection with the alleged unlawful deletion of ASYCUDA payment records and the diversion of government revenue. However, all ten suspects have since been released as investigations continue.
As part of the probe, the Commission questioned several senior officials of the National Revenue Authority (NRA), including Commissioner General Madam Jeneba Bangura.
Among those reportedly identified as key suspects are the Manager of the ASYCUDA Unit at the NRA, Stephanie Gladys Rodine Sandy, Aminata Sankoh-Yillah, Hawanatu Ben Foday, Kulio Mariama Jalloh, Hannah Mamie Tucker, and Amudan Yassin Koroma.
Investigators are said to have uncovered evidence indicating that entire customs declarations were allegedly deleted from the ASYCUDA database after payments had already been made. The investigation also reportedly found that payment receipts were issued in some instances without the corresponding funds being credited to government accounts.
The ACC further discovered evidence suggesting that suspicious transactions were deleted from the NRA system by unknown individuals allegedly working within the Authority’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) database department.
According to the preliminary findings, the alleged scheme involved a network of complex transactions through which more than Le300 billion is believed to have been stolen or diverted from government accounts across several commercial banks.
The investigation remains ongoing, and the ACC has not yet announced any formal charges or prosecutions in relation to the matter.
