Africa

By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, Matthew Anderson, and Mark Feldman The Annual Audit Report for fiscal year (FY) 2020 submitted to Sierra Leone’s Parliament by the Audit Service of Sierra Leone omitted essential evidence relating to serious material misstatements and financial irregularities. These misstatements and irregularities were identified during the annual audit exercise, which monitors […]

By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, Matthew Anderson, and Mark Feldman  Investment agreements and correspondence between the government of Sierra Leone and a Turkish company reveal how the Sierra Leonean President, Julius Maada Bio, singlehandedly leased the country’s ferry terminals to a Turkish company for a 25-year period without full disclosure nor parliamentary approval, as required

By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, Matthew Anderson, and Mark Feldman  Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio has indefinitely suspended two of the most senior members of the country’s national auditing agency. Auditor general, Madam Lara Taylor-Pearce and her deputy, Tamba Momoh, were indefinitely suspended from office on Thursday morning. No official reasons were given by

  By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, Matthew Anderson, and Mark Feldman Africanist Press has authenticated evidence from Sierra Leone’s National Electoral Commission’s (NEC), including documentation of recent promotions and postings of electoral staff. These documents show how the country’s elections management institution promoted more than 170 electoral personnel believed to be members and active supporters

By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, Matthew Anderson, and Mark Feldman  Recent salary increases for electoral staff in Sierra Leone cast new doubt over the independence and credibility of the country’s National Electoral Commission (NEC) and its ability to organize free and fair elections in a country whose political environment is now increasingly marred by electoral

By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, Matthew Anderson, and Mark Feldman The 2018 and 2019 financial records and bank statements of Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs show precisely how more than Le40.1 billion (over US$4 million) of funds earmarked  for the supposed renovation of the Sierra Leone Mission headquarters in New York were withdrawn and

By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, Matthew Anderson, and Mark Feldman Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has not responded to a lawsuit brought against the country’s diplomatic mission in New York. The United States District Court in New York dispatched four summons between 19 May 2021 and 17 June 2021 to the

By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah, Matthew Anderson, and Mark Feldman Sierra Leone’s Finance Ministry and officials in charge of the country’s COVID-19 response program have been holding billions of Leones (millions of US dollars) in public revenues received from COVID response services in a private bank account in direct violation of the country’s public finance