President Julius Maada Bio is alleged fuming with anger and embarrassment following the recent publications of the SLPP government’s bloated monthly wage bill by a panel of investigative experts of the Africanist Press newspaper. (Photo: President Bio wants a probe into the leaks and Chief Minister Dr. David Francis, left, reported to be heading the secret investigation).
State House sources say the government wants to know who leaked these sensitive financial documents to the newspaper, an exposure that has not only shamed the government – who proudly brands themselves as a govt that fights corruption – but has also gone down very badly in the eyes of Sierra Leoneans in and outside the country.
While Harding working Sierra Leoneans in the lower ranks of administrative work in the public service are getting pittance monthly salaries, those at the upper echelons of the SLPP government are being paid astronomical wages that far outweigh their performance in improving the conditions of impoverished people in Sierra Leone.
Here is a synopsis of the investigation done by the Africanist Press that uncovered the white-collar thievery in President Bio’s government: “We (Africanist Press) focused on key issues in the country’s national payroll, revealing, in particular, the existing disparities in the national salary structure and how the payroll itself has ballooned since Maada Bio assumed power. We noted how a drastically enlarged pool of political appointees installed as administrators in the civil and public service are earning monthly salaries often greater than the combined annual salaries of dozens of the subordinate and ancillary regular civil service staff in their respective departments.”
The above summary is the reality unfolding today under President Bio’s government, despite incessant claims by the SLPP hierarchy that their government is determined to wipe out corruption, a vice hitherto associated with the last APC government of President Ernest Bai Koroma. But the Africanist Press disclosure has now undressed stark naked the corruption that is embedded in the SLPP government today.
State House sources have confirmed that President Bio has personally instructed that a thorough investigation must be done to find out the moles in the Finance Ministry who exposed the wage bill of public servants and presidential appointees in government departments and institutions. Sources have indicated the Chief Minister Dr David Francis will head the investigation to uncover the source or sources of the leakage. (Photo: Sierra Leone Finance Minister Jacob Jusu Saffa).
Insiders say many public servants in the Finance Ministry are presently worried about the call by the government to probe the leakages as it has the propensity to go out of control which may indict innocent civil servants who may not have been in the good books of the Bio administration. “We are afraid of another SLPP witch-hunt,” a concerned civil servant in Freetown told the Organizer newspaper.
Reports say government appointees are particularly in panic mood after reports confirmed that the Africanist Press will shortly make public the names and how much each of the presidential appointees is receiving from these bloated salaries. Junior workers who are the technocrats and the backbone in the workforce on meager wages are reportedly less worried about the secret investigation as compared to the big sharks.
There are also reports that the entire Human Resource Department at the Accountant General Office will be invited to the Criminal Investigation Department CID in Freetown for questioning regarding the recent over-bloated salaries of senior political appointees of the government, according to the New Age newspaper.
Documentary evidence released by the Africanist Press shows the huge salary disparities at the Finance Ministry. At 21 million Leones monthly salary, the cook of President Maada Bio is earning more than senior University lecturers and even more than parliamentarians. The Financial Secretary Sahr Jusu is receiving a whopping 86 million Leones every month. Technocrats at the Finance Minister are receiving less than 2 million Leones a month. This is a salary disparity at its worst in Sierra Leone today.
As Sierra Leoneans eagerly await for the next publication, the Africanist Press is arguably the most popular newspaper today in the country. Everyone is talking about the important journalistic role the Africanist Press has played so far in exposing the SLPP government’s unfair salary and hypocrisy.
