Why Mayor of Freetown, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr May Lose Her Right to Hold Public Office

Popular TV Host Vickie Remoe has given an Opinion in relation to the saga between the Mayor of Freetown and the Anti-corruption.

Remoe recently posted that Anti-Corruption Commission has officially asked the Mayor of Freetown and her lead consultant to pay back funds they used for travel and per diem in 2019.

She pointed out that According to the Audit Report and the Subsequent investigations done by the ACC some 200 million leones were spent on travel expenses for a volunteer who transitioned to Consultant at the Mayor’s Office.

According to her, the consultant in question was not properly employed by the Freetown City Council and the ACC has asked for all monies to be returned.

She further revealed that the lawyer for the Mayor and Her lead consultant has asked not to refund the fund but the ACC says they must pay back what was spent.

She further gave an interpretation that Mayor and her lead consultant’s payback would be an admittance of guilt. She added that by paying back the Mayor may lose her right to hold public office.

However, one of her Facebook followers Adams Bangura reacted that he would have been happy to have them pay back every penny if the said trips were meaningless thus, bringing nothing to our national coffers. He further reacted that embarrassingly, the ACC nowhere in their release made mention of the enormous benefits Sierra Leone got from the trips.

“Remoe responded that ” I don’t think that’s how public financial management works. Across the board, the standard should be transparency and accountability. You want to employ someone who follows the law. You want to spend government money to follow the law. Don’t forge receipts and don’t use government funds to pay for trips for people who are not government official government workers.”

The TV host concluded that if the Mayor and her lead consultant don’t refund the money the ACC might prosecute her.