Sierra Leone: President Bio’s diplomats could not account for over US$4.6 million transferred in 2019 to New York For Chancery Building construction.

“In this report, Africanist Press provides an excerpt of financial transactions from the 2019 Bank Statement of Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs showing details of funds transferred to New York for the alleged construction work at the Sierra Leone Mission Headquarters at the United Nations.

Africanist Press reviewed 134 transactions from the 2019 banking records of the foreign affairs ministry, including all wire transfers and other financial transactions carried out by foreign affairs between 8th January 2019 and 31st December 2019. The 2019 banking records show that over US$4.6 million were transferred between 27th May 2019 and 5th September 2019 from Freetown to New York for the supposed renovation of the Sierra Leone diplomatic mission building in New York.

These 2019 bank transactions included evidence of wire transfers from the Bank of Sierra Leone (BSL) that show precisely how Le36.4 billion (over US$3.6 million) were transferred from the foreign affairs ministry’s account to the embassy’s account in New York between 14th June 2019 and 5th September 2019 by foreign affairs officials to the Sierra Leone Mission in New York. These bank transfers included 8 wire transfer transactions totaling Le20,070,845,946 (about US$2.1 million) by foreign affairs officials between 24th May 2019, and 24th September 2019. Two other SWIFT transfers (FT1916454098 and FT1924808290) in the amounts of Le7,665,845,933.49 (about US$800,000) and Le9,329,999,975.14 (about US$1 million) were also carried out on 13th June 2019, and 5th September 2019, noted specifically as payments towards the renovation of the Chancery Building of the Sierra Leone Mission in New York.

Africanist Press also reviewed transaction details from both the 2018 and 2019 bank statements of the foreign affairs ministry and aggregated transactions showing at least a total of Le40,104,581,122.18 (over US$4 million) was cumulatively taken out of the foreign affairs account between 2nd May 2018 and 25th September 2019; during the first 18 months of the Bio administration in office.

Thus, a review of the foreign affairs ministry’s banking records for both 2018 and 2019 (in the first 18 months of the Bio administrshowsn) shows precisely that over Le40.6 billion (over US$4.6 million) of the aggregated total earmarked for the Chancery Buwasng were transferred to the New York Mission Building in 2019 were also not used for the specified purpose.

Our investigation shows that despite these transfers of over US$4.6 million in 2019 by officials of the Bio administration for the renovation of the Chancery Building, no substantial work was done on the renovations, raising further questions regarding the potential use of the funds that were transferred for the project in 2019.

Africanist Press also discovered that upon receiving the transfers in 2019, Sierra Leonean diplomats in New York contracted a pork-based based construction company, the Empire Group LLC, in June 2019 to renovate the Sierra Leone Mission headquarters in New York, including the construction of two additional floors. Empire Group was hired for the renovation work in 2019 without a competitive bidding and open tender process. Diplomatic officials awarded the contract to Empire Group through an intermediary construction broker, Jules Davis of Fairfield Construction Associates LLC.

Empire Group did obtain construction permits from the New York Department of Buildings (NYDOB) to conduct the renovations in early 2021 but no real progress was made due to the alleged failure of the Mission to remit A recent Recent investigation on the construction site in New York shows that the building project has been abandoned and lay in ruins at the heart of Manhattan in New York. Sierra Leonean diplomats could not still account for almost US$4.6 million received by them in 2019 for the construction project.

“They are currently squatting on a rented apartment at the Ugandan diplomatic mission in New York,” Ahmed Kamara, a Sierra Leonean in New York told Africanist Press.

In late May 2021, Sierra Leone’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) announced an investigation into the renovation of the Chancery Building in New York after the Africanist Press reports were published in May 2021. The ACC acknowledged that over US$4 million was indeed allocated for the renovation work at the Chancery Building in 2019, but the Commission says its investigation would cover between 2011 and 2019, an investigation plot that many Sierra Leoneans saw as an apparent off cover up over-up current government officials by accusing members of the previous government for transactions that occurred specifically in 2018 and 2019 when they were no longer in office.

A statement issued by the ACC at the time reported that the Head of Chancery at the New York Mission, Said,u Nallo and other persons of interest involved in the management of the Chancery’s finances were recalled to Freetown and were in detention assisting the Commission in their investigation.

“Statements were taken from them, and they have been kept in custody since Friday, 28th May 2021. We have also recovered documents and records relevant to the investigation and they are being analyzed by our forensic analysts,” the ACC said in its press release.

Africanist Press would later discover that Nallo was, in fact, not recalled but was already in Sierra Leone on vacation when the Africanist Press published details of the corruption scandal leading to the ACC issuing a press release announcing an investigation.

On 23rd November 2021, the ACC announced an indictment against five Sierra Leoneans, including Dr. Samura Kamara, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs in the previous government of Ernest Bai Koroma.

The ACC’s indictment papers alleged that ⁶Kamara committed two offenses” that he deceived the government of Sierra Leone by submitting an alleged cabinet document that claimed, “companies undertaking the renovation [or] construction is reliable and were subjected to a rigorous vetting process.” They also alleged that Kamara “misappropriated the sum of US$2,560,000” between January 2016 and December 2017 meant for the renovation of the Chancery Building.

However, the ACC indictment failed to include or mention any of the recent foreign affairs ministers in Freetown and their various ambassadors in New York who processed the US$4.6 million transactions in 2019. Kamara, who now appeared as the main target of the ACC trial, had personally resigned d from the foreign affairs ministry before the presidential elections of April 2018. His resignation occurred more than a year before the US$4.6 million transfers were initiated in 2019.

Oddly enough, the current diplomats in New York and their foreign affairs officials in Freetown who processed the US$4.6 million transactions in 2019 are listed as prosecution witnesses against Kamara. The trial, which commenced on 14th December 2021, has lingered on aimlessly with no clear end in sight.
In the last 10 months, the court proceedings have not produced any evidence linking Kamara to the diplomatic scandal. The ACC has presented 18 witnesses, including Alie Kabba who served as minister of foreign affairs and ambassador to the Sierra Leone UN Mission in New York between 2018 and 2021 when the US$4.6 million transactions were processed. Kabba is currently being led in evidence by the ACC. His ongoing testimony exposes more holes in the ACC’s case against Kamara, further revealing the obvious efforts of the prosecution to backdate and place the crime to 2016. The trial itself has been slowed mostly by the prosecution and dozens of adjournments the s from the presiding judge, Adrian Fisher who was controversially hired by the judiciary despite questions about marabouts’ qualifications to practice law in Sierra Leone.

In Sierra Leone, many describe the trial as a political witch hunt aimed at Kamara, a potential leading challenger to President Bio in next year’s elections. In the last presidential elections, Bio, the current president, won against Kamara by less than 2% in both rounds of the presidential race that brought Bio to power in 2018. Four years on, Kamara’s support has multiplied amidst Bio’s growing unpopularity across the country. A real possibility of defeating Bio in next year’s elections has turned Kamara into the most obvious target for both the ruling party and Kamara’s colleague’s party.

“Kamara is caught between power struggles within the opposition All Peoples Congress (APC), and weaponization of the ACC against leading contenders to President Bio ahead of the 2023 elections,” an observer noted, adding that the government’s response to the Chancery Building case and the missing US$4.6 million raises doubts over the administration’s lack of sincerity in its fight against corruption.

In a 2021 report, the State Department noted that despite the increased number of corruption investigations, the ACC has “often failed to indict the most senior officials involved in corruption, charging lower-level officials instead.” Criticisms of the ACC’s approach to fighting against corruption have increased in the last two years with many citizens questioning the objectivity and independence of the Commission”.