Sierra Leone News: Criticisms for President & ACC over Italian Ebola Rice saga By Our Investigating Team Dec 12, 2014, 17:24 Email this article Printer friendly page You May Click Here To Read or Discuss Views About This Article His Excellency the President, Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma and the Anti Corruption Commission, have both been cited & widely criticised over apparent inability to control corrupt acts happening amongst government appointees. The latest is the President’s silence as evidence piles up that an erstwhile member of his ministerial Cabinet needs investigation over possible corrupt conversion of donated funds. Mr. Peter Bayuku Konteh, until Tuesday this week was member of Koroma’s Cabinet with portfolio of Tourism and Cultural Affairs. The Sierra Leone Constitution, in Section 56, is very clear on what a Cabinet Minister is allowed to undertake in his private, personal capacity. This does not include writing letters to collect funds into a private non-government bank account, ostensibly to buy rice to feed hungry citizens of Sierra Leone affected by the Ebola crisis. However, this is exactly what Peter Bayuku Konteh did when he wrote letters to charities and individuals in Italy begging for money but with a strict request that the money should be paid, not into the account announced by the President, but into another Italian account held at a Milan-based bank in the name of a non-profit group he founded years back. One of photos of Peter Bayuku Conteh (center) which he sent to Italy to raise funds into a different bank account at Italy’s BANK ETICA with number IT33T0501801600000000132970 at the time he was Cabinet Minister of Tourism. President Koroma & ACC have been cited for double standards! The bank account at Italy’s BANK ETICA with number IT33T0501801600000000132970 and operated with full blessings of this erstwhile Cabinet Minister, is hub into which cash supposedly meant to alleviate Ebola suffering in Sierra Leone, is being sent and withdrawn from to be redistributed. The monies, collected from various Donors in Italy, have been presented to Italians as having been used for an anti-Ebola project for Koinadugu, called; “RICE FOR SIERRA LEONE”. Investigations have listed Italy charities like “Source of Hope Onlus”, “Abarekà Nandree Onlus”, “ViteIntorno Onlus “, “Fiba Cisl ‘Pisa’ Auser” and “Together we can” as haven all been donating quite a lot of cash which monies were then used by the Minister; ostensibly to feed or help only those Sierra Leoneans supposedly dying from Ebola. One of ‘beggah-beggah’ flyers distributed inside Italy by Koroma’s Cabinet Minister According to our credible research, the Sierra Leone Government operated Ebola Bank accounts were by-passed by Peter Bayuku Konteh and monies collected in Italy were never paid into government accounts announced by President Koroma. Sources indicate first tranche of money he received was 25,000 Euros (~Le150 million). Documents seen confirm Peter Bayuku Konteh wrote to Italians again on November 11th 2014, requesting more money thus: Dear friends, thank you for the sensitivity shown once again and for the prompt response to call for rice. I inform you that with funds received, Im getting the rice and continue to distribute supplies of rice in villages of the 11 municipalities of the Region of Koinadugu to families quarantined and to young people in checkpoints. On the 15th November 2014, the then sitting Cabinet Minister wrote in Italian for more cash. An extract (translated into English) says: I have therefore been able to visit these 21 villages [in Nieni chiefdom] two nights sleeping in the car and one night on a bench. It was a sad moment for me for what I saw such as in the villages of Kumala, Bandakoro, Yoria, etc. where I saw dead bodies and people who were just dying to ebola. But what struck me most was a pregnant woman who gave birth and two days later she died. The difficulty of UNICEF was how to feed the baby girl who also had ebola, so nobody wanted to get close. It was very painful to see shortly after, the baby also died. Our challenge now is to ensure food to quarantined families and also to the young guys that I organized and placed to make checkpoints, to prevent the population from moving from one village to another. I used the latest resources received from Italy to buy bags of food; rice, salt, onions, nuts etc for these families and youths. The WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME, which was to distribute food rations to these quarantined, sometimes does not arrive or arrives late, or even the food is insufficient and people are forced to move, so the risk of infection increases. If I can get help in this regard, I will be really grateful. Finally, I tell you the truth, Im not at all clear in my head at this time and I sleep very little. Thank you all for the affectionate closeness to my poor people and the great friendship that I have been shown. I send you all a big hug, Peter Bayuku Konteh. One of the numerous photographs sent by the Cabinet Minister to lure his Donors in Italy The then Cabinet Minister also wrote letters in Italian language signing off bottom, as a “Minister of the Government of Sierra Leone”, to Italian donors from who he requested funds. This caused even more money to be collected and sent to this Cabinet Minister to feed Koinadugu residents. However, whether Peter Bayuku Konteh, as Minister did it all without any knowledge of those around the Presidency is not known. It is unclear to which extent certain unscrupulous persons around State House were involved in knowledge of the rather questionable activities of this Cabinet Minister but reports allege a soft exit landing has been prepared and the erstwhile Cabinet Minister might escape anti-corruption commission perusal.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 01:28:24 +0000
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