By Bampia James Bundu
The Mayor of Makeni has accused the Minister of Youth, Alimamy Kamara of inciting youth against her council. Speaking at a press conference in Makeni, Sunkarie Kabba Kamara said the minister also challenged the council’s decision to award contract for the cleaning of the government hospital to a company other than his. The mayor said that when she took over office in 2012, she noticed that the company that was cleaning the Makeni Government Hospital, Leonex Group of Companies, owned by the Youth Minister had no legal contract with the council and was in fact “operating illegally”. She said that the company was asked to discontinue with the work while a new bidding process was opened to allow for competitive bidding as stipulated in the procurement laws of Sierra Leone. She revealed that Leonex Group of Company did not submit any proposal and at the end of the process the contract was awarded to Sanksey Cleaning Agency who won the bid. The Mayor also alleged that the youth minister challenged the process, asking that the contract be awarded to his company because it was a "youthful company". “The youth took upon themselves to obstruct the operations of the new company and stop it from doing its work, claiming that they should be awarded the contract or the work would stop,” she complained, adding that the new contractors had decided to employ the youth who were working for Leonex even though some of them refused to cooperate. “They said they would only work for Leonex Company”, she added. Minister of Youth, Alimamy Kamara described the mayor’s allegations as “unfortunate”. He said she should not have raised the issue which "was laid to rest months ago." The minister admitted that as youth leader of the APC party at the time, he was part of the leadership of Leonex Company and they provided leadership for the youth in Makeni. Kamara said that his company refused to submit any proposal because of the criteria set by the Chief Administrator,which included that all companies should have a five-year working experience in cleaning activity. “This is the same contract the Bo and Kenema city councils gave to their youth to undertake without such a benchmark. Why is it that the Chief Administrator could put such a criterion?”the minister queried. The minister revealed that the Chief Administrator did the bidding and had awarded the contract before the Mayor took up office. “We are surprised that the mayor is now taking this issue up in a press conference. I am disappointed in the Makeni City Council”, he said and added that the contract was awarded to a company that was not based in Makeni, which he said was why they had problems with the youth. On the violent youth protest, Kamara denied this, insisting that it was peaceful. He said the police could attest to this as the LUC in Makeni was informed about the protest action. © Politico 23/05/13
