ANOTHER MEGA FRAUD
…NRA TURNS ENGINE OF NATIONAL PLUNDER
By Ibrahim Alusine Kamara (Kamalo)
A fresh financial scandal of staggering proportions has rocked Sierra Leone’s public sector, implicating again top officials of the National Revenue Authority (NRA), Ministry of Finance, and several tellers of various commercial banks in the country.
Preliminary investigations suggest hundreds of billions of old Leones in public revenue have been siphoned, using a sophisticated web of fraudulent transactions funneled through multiple commercial banks over a period spanning from 2019 to date.
According to highly-placed sources, the scheme centered around diverting from the national treasury revenue accumulated from tax and customs into private accounts controlled by members of the syndicate.
The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) has already arrested several individuals linked to the scam, including senior officials of the NRA and staff of implicated banks, but one of the alleged kingpins and masterminds of the fraudulent scheme, Abu Kamara, who is NRA Finance Manager, is said to be on the run after allegedly bribing his way out of custody.
Sources within the Ministry of Finance and CID inner circles have affirmed Kamara and his accomplices exploited systemic loopholes to override internal controls, manipulating records and redirecting funds with apparent ease.
“This could be the largest financial crime in the country’s history,” one source familiar with the investigation stated, adding, “This scale of the theft is unprecedented, and the level of complicity is disturbing.”
We learned the atrocious act has sent shockwaves across the corridors of power, and NRA says it takes the matter with utmost seriousness, disclosing the initiation of a full-scale internal investigations into the matter.
“Let it be made clear – no stone will be left unturned. The NRA is fully committed to identifying and holding accountable any individuals – internal or external – found complicit in this breach of public trust.”
However, amid the control measures being instituted, including a caution not to make cash payments that exceed fifty thousand Leone (50 million old Leones) to NRA, except by crossed-cheques or official electronic channels, there are whispers of high-level cover-ups. More sad and alarming is an allegation by insiders that certain senior government officials are actively working to suppress the outrageously bad act from public knowledge, fearing the reputational damage it could inflict upon NRA and current SLPP administration.
Meanwhile, local calls for accountability are growing, as civil society groups and anti-corruption campaigners are already demanding an independent investigation into the issue, with full-scale public disclosure of all individuals and institutions involved to follow.
As the story continues to unfold, many Sierra Leoneans are once again left to question the commitment of their leaders to combatting corruption and safeguarding public resources.
A stalwart of the main opposition has slammed the incident as “systemic looting.”
In the view of Mohamed Pope Kamara, who is deputy Publicity Secretary of APC, NRA has been transformed into an engine of national plunder under Bio’s watch, noting that billions of Leones, desperately needed for essential services, are “flying to the detriment of the needy Sierra Leoneans.”
“This isn’t petty theft; it’s a brazen, organized “syndicate” looting the treasury, directly causing harm to the most vulnerable citizens,” he lashes out.
“The NRA scandal isn’t peripheral; it’s central to the nation’s economic death spiral,” he adds.
The APC strongman nitpicks the government’s handling of the NRA scandal as revealing its inherent lawlessness.
“Instant sackings “with letters” alongside arbitrary suspensions “with no letters” expose a regime operating without transparency, due process, or justice, even within its ranks. The chilling warning that “what is lying is far greater than what is flying” suggests this exposed corruption is merely the tip of a vast, submerged iceberg of theft, implicating the highest levels,” Mohamed Pope Kamara rebukes.
Independent observers say since the advent of Bio’s government, certain unscrupulous civil servants have shamelessly raped state resources for selfish gains, and lambast the Paopa government as kleptocratic administration – a corrupt and dishonest one characterised by greed!
More revelations in subsequent editions…