By Isaac Massaquoi
Just when we thought the banking industry in Sierra Leone was on a sound footing and was in fact beginning to positively impact the nation’s economy – creating jobs, facilitating trade, investment and all that – came news that a handful of banks acting with shadow state characters like Kabba Khalu and some NRA workers have scored spectacular own goals by which they have seriously undermined their ability to maintain the confidence of the people.
Already heads have started rolling and I can say without any doubt that if we asked truly independent auditors to look at the operations of some of our banks, they would find gaping holes two hundred times bigger than the one the police are suggesting Kabba Khalu has dug with the help of crooked insiders who must now be fished out and punished.
When recently banks and other financial institutions collapsed one after the other in Europe and America, sending the bosses to jail, many here thought Sierra Leone was safe because such things were happening in faraway places. It can be argued that those who perpetrated fraud in those countries were far more sophisticated both in terms of their personality and methodology by which they carried on their trade for years under the noses of great institutions with clout and tradition in investigating financial crimes like the Securities and Exchange Commission and the FBI.
Just when Sierra Leoneans thought the era of “vouchergate”, “squandergate” and “milliongate” were gone, the nation woke up one morning to news that a man called Kabba Khalu, backed by a powerful network of top level collaborators in the private sector and, I hear within government too, had collected more than Le 40 Billion from half a dozen banks under the most dubious of loan conditions ever. From what I know so far about this case, his collaterals are as intriguing as they are interesting.
A group of National Revenue Authority officials and staff of certain banks were also brought before a court and subsequently remanded in custody. Even at this stage the law presumes they are innocent and media law teaches that journalists, like me, should be very careful not to engage in trial by media. I respect that. What no law stops me from doing is asking critical questions about what is happening to Sierra Leone and how come nobody or institution, including the Anti- Corruption Commission under its “unexplained wealth” provision is asking serious questions about lifestyles that are totally out of touch with the present day realities facing the average Sierra Leonean.
I am not sure it would come as any surprise if some of the many banks that poured into Sierra Leone in the last five years and indeed the local ones, closed their doors for good leaving the customers in pain and suffering.
As I write this, I am reminded about the case of the small time thief who set up the so-called Wealth Builders group and by some cheap tricks was able to swindle billions of leones from unsuspecting Sierra Leoneans who were eager to make a quick kill from a scheme that was definitely too good to be true. Since the crime boss was taken into custody everything has gone quiet. I would never be surprised if the Kabba Khalu case went the same way.
From time to time, subscribers to the Wealth Builders scheme have complained about their loss but things are in the same place. One of them suggested to me the other day that Peter Ayinla has probably been sprung from jail and taken out of the country. Because they have no idea what is happening, in terms of the government prosecuting the alleged criminal and helping them recover their investment from what is left of the assets of the Wealth Builders, the people are left to speculate and find answers to their problems.
When I looked at the official documents that helped Peter Ayinla set up his criminal enterprise, it was clear that the institutions established by the state to protect the people and their investments failed in their functions. It was at the 11th hour that the Bank of Sierra Leone released a statement warning about the dangers of investing in the Wealth Builders project. So what their banking supervisor went on radio to tell the nation there was "no cause for alarm". I couldn't help but switch off for a while.
It's now more than a year since this incident occurred and no official has even been reprimanded for criminally neglecting their duties to the extent that the alleged criminal was able to run his scam unchallenged.
In the case of Kabba Khalu I can ask the same questions: How was it that this man was able to go from bank to bank contracting loans even when he knew he would be unable to service them in a timely manner? Did the banks involved genuinely invoke their normal procedures before granting the loans? Can the big men who approved these loans say on oath that they acted in good faith? Can the government categorically say right now that it will not use public funds to bail out these banks that have been hit by the activities of Kabba Khalu and his associates? And the final question for now is how many more Kabba Khalus do we have in this country? In other words how widespread is this disease of bankers granting risky loans to the Kabba Khalus of Sierra Leone?
When I suggested earlier that the ACC should vigorously pursue "unexplained wealth" in line with its statutory powers, I wasn't asking for some kind of witch hunt of every Sierra Leonean that is able to buy himself a new pair of shoes. Indeed there are many very decent Sierra Leoneans who have worked hard for years to build their modest homes for their families and are able to travel abroad on holidays – generally live a reasonably good life with honest cash. Those are not the people I am talking about. I am talking about some amazing rags-to-riches stories that we see particularly in the new settlements and hills overlooking Freetown and in the peninsular. We also see them in different brands of gas-guzzling SUVs that even Americans find it difficult to operate any more.
We are living in a society that celebrates people like these. They are the Grand Chief Patrons at church services, they are the ones invited to take the kick-off at football matches, they always occupy front row seats at serious national events involving elected politicians. And my concern, also, is that because they are always in the corridors of power, they are surely using such influence to feather their nests. Politicians are elected to run honest governments in the best interest of their people so they should never allow people like Kabba Khalu to come close to them.
I believe that in the last ten years the urge among young people to become rich has become so intense that no route to wealth and power is out of bounds. It's relentless. And with high integrity institutions like banks also employing questionable characters who are prepared to sell the nation and their souls to make money, who can be saved.
As for the people from NRA who the state is alleging stole money from the public purse, their activities remind of the day Judas Iscariot sold out for thirty pieces of silver. We are talking about a group of people entrusted with the responsibility of collecting taxes on behalf of five million or more people. The money they collect is used for social services like schools, health care and so on. According to the police, they have now converted that money to their own use. Such incidents can only increase the levels of cynicism with which people approach tax-paying and in the process tax avoidance and evasion become a pastime of particularly big businesses. Can I say justifiably so?
There's no Sierra Leonean who doesn't fervently believe NRA staff are involved in under-invoicing, pilfering of imports and general corruption. That image problem has been compounded by the events of the last few days. The suspicions around NRA will never be erased by their Spin Doctors telling us the guys in the net are the bad apples. Many rotten apples remain in the system.
The state must never fail to prove these allegations they have made against the NRA staff and bank insider associates. I don't get to decide this but I believe that the focus of the whole exercise should be about recovering the proceeds of the alleged criminal offences. Throwing people in jail to spend five to ten years at the expense of the state from which they stole in the first place makes a mockery of the so-called criminal justice system.
