By Hajaratu Kalokoh
Justice Bankole Thompson has ended probe into the expenses of Sierra Leone's Ministry of Agriculture as part of the ongoing investigations at the Commission of Inquiry.
Monday’s proceeding saw lead Defense Counsel Lansana Dumbuya cross examined the last witness of this investigation, Edward Bassie Kamara.
Kamara, who is Chief Accountant at the Ministry of Agriculture, was on the stand to explain why certain names of people reported to have received payment were not included on bank statements of the ministry.
During the previous hearing, Kamara was asked to bring bank statements to the commission but the Defense Counsel was concerned that the names to which the cheques were paid did not appear in the statements presented.
During Monday’s hearing, Kamara was asked by the counsel to look at page 45 and 46 of exhibit X 1-62.
“All the cheque numbers that are in exhibit DAP1-2 are also captured in page 45and 46,” Counsel Dumbuya said.
Kamara confirmed that when the audit was done in 2016 he was the chief accountant. And he said the bank statements would have been brought from the bank itself or from the signatory to this account for the period 2015.
“As I stated earlier on Wednesday last week, the signatories were the permanent secretary, Edward Martin Kargbo; Francis Abdul Rahman Sankoh, Chief Agriculture Officer; and ones in a while among these signatories there were few cases of a third party on this cheque book who was the Director of Extension, Mr. Bakar J. Bangura,” he stated.
Kamara was asked about several other payments that were made by the ministry. Among the cheques he read were payments of Le54 million, Le35million and a Le120 million payments for various purposes within the ministry.
Kamara, during last week’s hearing, had noted that he did not sign any of the cheques because of policies at the ministry.
“I was not signing the cheque book during that time this cheque was signed; I started signing sometime in December 2016. Edward Martin Kargbo and Francis Abdul Rahman Sankoh signed the above cheques and both men have retired,” he said.
The bank statements also showed a Le37 million expenditure on per diem and fuel for transportation of representatives from the ministry.
“Every ministry and department has to send representatives to Port Loko to partake in the development of this performance contract. That is why Le37, 450, 000 was used for the said purpose,” Kamara explained. He was referring to the performance contract summit that the Ministry of Finance organized in Port Loko in December 2015.
Following his testimony on Monday, Kamara was dismissed by Justice Thompson. And at the end of hearing, the State Counsel moved the motion that Ministers and Deputy Ministers who have been named as persons of interest be formally invited to appear before the commission.
The judge has not granted the motion yet. The defense counsel are expected to reply to it on Wednesday.
A similar application in Commission No 1 has been ruled against. It will be interesting to see how Justice Thompson will eventually rule on it.
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