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Mass Misappropriation Grips City Council

Author: Richard B Bockarie - SEM

City Council of Freetown has been found to be in many deals that are heavily laden with corruption, according to reports reaching Sierra Express Media.

After a series of publications about apparent odd deals in the council; officials working for the council, who ask for anonymity, called on the offices of this Press to relate for public attention many corrupt undertakings of the council that the are worth the attention of both the central government and the Anti Corruption Commission.

The officials expressed concern about the way and manner monies are handled at the council, revealing that anybody having a strong party link or who is connected with the Mayor is given freehold to institute ways to spend council funds. It is said that the council follows no laid down plans in the expenditure of funds as all those having the connection come with unrealistic programmes funding that end making no true impact on the lives of the ordinary tax payer.

The concerned officials mentioned the rate at which monies are drawn from council accounts as alarming and that council funds are now almost exhausted with donors discontinuing funded programmes that have been stacked with no headway in view. The overseas reserve that is banked in England they say has almost dried up whilst local revenue collection does not seem to be forthcoming this financial year. This they attributed to the frivolous ways the council spends money on party issues as against issues affecting people of the municipality. Anytime parliamentarians or party stalwarts visit the municipality council, packages are arranged for them for reasons that are not clear to us, a female councilor who seemed much tired of this dispensation complained.

Money collected last year from the sales of local tax receipts was never used in the proper way as most of it went to the end of year retreat held at a posh hotel in Freetown. Added to this officials say, the council gives fat per diem to a group of selected councilors that attach themselves to the entourage of the President whenever he tours the country or spends the weekend at his home town of Makeni. We don’t see the need for members of our councils to be attached to Presidential entourage, we operate a local government council for the municipality of Freetown, and we see no connection between our function and that of the presidential entourage the councilors told Sierra Express in an exclusive talk.

In no uncertain terms, the councilors attributed the disobliging attitude of residents of Freetown towards the payment of local tax to the lack of clear evidence of proper use tax payer’s money. Donors are becoming disinterested in activities of the Freetown municipality council for reasons of mass misappropriation of donated funds in its various areas of development interventions since the year 2008. Earlier this year, donors put the Victoria Park renovation programme on hold giving no reasons whatsoever but inside sources at the council say initial funds set aside for the project had disappeared to nowhere, killing the spirit of the donor agency in the matter. Many other projects are said to be suffering because of such ugly developments at the country’s number one municipality council.

Councilors in the Freetown Municipality Council are also reportedly wary of expensive and long frequent traveling vacations taken by the Mayor and his cabal out of the country.

The award of contracts at the council is also another area that has been marred by corruption, reports say. Contracts, it is said, are offered on party or connection basis with gross disregard for the National Commission for Privatization (NCP) Act. An official working at the office of the Chief Administration who asked not to be named said the bidding process here is just as perfunctory as observing rules and not keeping them. The only thing you need is a voice from someone big on the central government and the contract is yours. There are also manipulations carried by the big bosses wherein the contracts are given out to close friends and relatives that end up going into equitable shares with them, that’s the game.

Reports are also that the council records the lowest in tax collection this year as it has not been able to collect even half of the printed tax receipts and that it has resorted to forced collection from house to house.

Local media has invariably condemned the tactics, comparing it to the hut tax war of colonial times in the country.

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