President Koroma\u2019s authorization for the supply of take home rice to serving soldiers seemed to cast aspersion of a \u2018hoax\u2019 in the creation and enhancement of the company of his younger brother getting the government contract.<\/p>\n
Soon after President Koroma\u2019s authorization to have soldiers get a bag of rice every month, officials of Defence Ministry quickly put out a bid, requesting suitable business organizations apply.<\/p>\n
To all, it was looked at as a level playing field. Interested companies applied and were thoroughly examined.<\/p>\n
\u2018Harmony Trading\u2019 which was amongst companies that applied (a company owned by the younger brother of the President) was apparently disqualified on grounds of \u2018irregularities\u2019 observed.<\/p>\n
The African Sunshine Company was therefore awarded the contract and in writing, told to immediately begin to supply rice to the military.<\/p>\n
After months of consistent and timely supplies of rice, officials of national procurement came out with a report, ordering a \u2018redo\u2019 of the Army rice contract.<\/p>\n
It is prominent in the report put out by procurement officials that the company of the younger brother of the President appealed against African Sunshine, and had claimed it bidded the lowest and so, should be awarded the contract.<\/p>\n
It was observed that the name \u2018Harmony Trading\u2019 was changed to Sierra Commodity.<\/p>\n
Of course, findings have it that Sylvanus Junior Koroma caused a change of name from Harmony to Sierra Commodity on the grounds of detracting minds of the public on the issue of tax and duty waiver unlawfully and conspiratorially granted his company.<\/p>\n
Documentary evidence states how sacked Minister David O. Carew (subsequent Finance Minister) wrote a letter to the head of National Revenue Authority (NRA), ordering that duty waiver to the tune of Le2+billion be unconditionally granted to the company of the younger brother of the President.<\/p>\n
The order, according to content in the letter, explains vividly that government agreed to grant tax and duty waiver to Harmony Trading.<\/p>\n
That apart, Harmony which recently metamorphosed into becoming Sierra Commodity, hoodwinked another government contract using political authority – President\u2019s Brother.<\/p>\n
Whether the withdrawal of the Army rice contract from African Sunshine to Sierra Commodity was the making of President Koroma or not, society continues to question the involvement of President\u2019s family members into retail business.<\/p>\n
It must be noted that \u2018conflict of interest\u2019 has extreme influence and privileged circumstances to corruption.<\/p>\n
After careful study of clauses in the procurement act, it is observed that the phrase \u2018responsive bidder\u2019 outweighs \u2018lowest bidder. In fact, the law has made no provision for \u2018lowest bidder\u2019 in the act at all.<\/p>\n
In essence, the phrase \u2018lowest bidder\u2019 was a coined up tactic to indirectly encourage public officials delve into corruption.<\/p>\n
\u2018President\u2019s rice for President Brother\u2019 as in the headline of this piece, questioned President Koroma\u2019s unconcerned innocence to the \u2018in the pond\u2019 and \u2018out of the pond\u2019 conducts of procurement officials in relation to the Army rice contract.<\/p>\n
Records have it that the APC government unwarrantedly gave duty free concession to Harmony Trading for rice it imported for sale.<\/p>\n
The sum of Le 2,746,813,483.44 was slackly let loose to Harmony Trading because it is owned by the President\u2019s younger brother.<\/p>\n
Money of such could have helped solve the ballooning problems of society\u2019s vulnerable and helpless of persons.<\/p>\n
Again, it boils down to the fact that family members of President Koroma must have their hands off retail business.<\/p>\n
Months after that came the Army rice contract. African Sunshine was legally awarded the contract for the supply of rice to the military.<\/p>\n
It supplied for two consecutive months and later was told to stop because the younger brother of President Koroma appealed against the award.<\/p>\n
Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n President Koroma\u2019s authorization for the supply of take home rice to serving soldiers seemed to cast aspersion of a \u2018hoax\u2019 in the creation and enhancement […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":75801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[671,1],"tags":[5218,880,5542,6217,5219,1055,1738,6154,5492],"class_list":["post-17177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-uncategorized","tag-african-sunshine","tag-corruption","tag-government-contracts","tag-harmony-trading","tag-junior-koroma","tag-president-ernest-bai-koroma","tag-rice-contract","tag-sierra-commodity","tag-sierra-leone-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/75801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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