Despite President Bio Being New Energy Minister…
It is Still Business As Usual At EDSA
The President has to know about this!! ‘Dis nar bad bad fityai bo!’ You all know that with the resignation as energy minister of Kanja Sesay a month ago, the President, Retired Brigadier Maada Bio, took up the job as Minister of Energy. That reality should have sent shivers down the spines of likely corrupt officials in the electricity supply company, EDSA, and the Ministry of Energy. Apparently, ‘ee look lek say man dem dae sock-tit’ the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Sierra Leone. It could be that the cynical b…ds in EDSA are continuing business-as-usual. I could visualize them sneering gleefully: “Bo leh Bio leff we ba!! Nar fuss time ee dae pan!”
Amadu Brima
The following complaint against EDSA was forwarded to me by a former senior management colleague in the National Revenue Authority (NRA), Amadu Brima (we both were founding senior management staff in the NRA as assistant commissioners in 2003), who retired a couple years ago as Deputy Director of Finance in the NRA. I have written several times that Amadu Brima is the most honest government official I know of in recent times in the history of Sierra Leone. He was in a position in the NRA where others likely would steal millions of dollars. Amadu Brima stole not a piece of paper. He was feared by those he supervised. His superior officers at the NRA were scared of him, and they calculatedly marginalized him, so he would not know of likely deals and scream loudly about them. I give instant credence to what Amadu Brima asserts. He never stole. He almost never would tell a lie. Following is what Amadu Brima sent to me about EDSA
Amadu Brima (@+232-76-692-873): “EDSA has been complaining of electricity theft, but their agents are collecting payments and have resorted to day light robbery of their customers.”
Amadu Brima continues: “I always check the units I use and pay for, despite the fact that I have a large credit balance – 193 units around 10a.m. this morning.
“The difference between my last month’s top up and this morning was 13.9 units
“That 13.9 units is Le 40 as computed below:
13.9×1.819=25.28
GST (15%). =. 3.79
Total. 29.07
Service Chge. 11.00
Total 40.07
“I paid the Le40, but the agent gave me only 6(six) units. Therefore, I was cheated of 7.9 units.
“When I queried the agent, she told me that it is now a new tariff.
I was not satisfied about her assertion that it is a new tariff. I went into the EDSA/Ministry of Energy Head Office on Siaka Stevens Street to confirm it or not. I was directed to about four officers, who could not give satisfactory answers. The last person I was directed to was not even in the office. I enquired how soon was she to be in the office, the other officer present said that she didn’t know. I got angry, and told them that their customer care was too poor. Is it because it is a Government Institution?
“As a result, I decided to come home and install what was given to me.
The units I installed from the receipt was 6 units.
“I have, on several occasions, stated in social media that Institutional Ethics have been destroyed in nearly all Government Owned Enterprises.
“Actually, I was not surprised at the way they treated me.
“For ease of reference, I forward the relevant receipt.
Amadu Brima…”
Ambassador Rev Dr Momodu Conteh on EDSA
A few hours apart on this same day, May 28, 2024, by sheer coincidence or divine-hand-at-work, Ambassador Rev Dr Momodu Conteh also sent me his own complaint, accusing EDSA of “daylight robbery”. Remember him? He was the Christian clergy, who recently, in an audio message that went viral, upbraided Chief Minister, Dr David Moinina Sengeh, for his defamation of churches and mosques in publicly saying in a television interview that the churches and mosques were engaged in electricity theft.
Rev Dr. Ambassador Momodu Conteh (@+232-76-610-017): “Transaction Id MP240524.1954. A09188 You have sent to EDSA transaction amount of 150.00 Leones, charges: 0.00, GST 0.00150.00. Your new balance is 392.88 Leones.
“The three units finished on the 3rd day, I bought another Le100 units; so, I have proof now that EDSA is a camp of aggressive serial arm-twisting robbers!!”
Dangerous Defiance!!
Can someone forward this article to Ben Kaifala, Commissioner of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). He ought to send his Sting Team to EDSA. When, even with the President directly in charge of a ministry, officials of a private-public-partnership agency like EDSA could be flagrantly stealing from the public, and treating the public with contempt, we are in big trouble. We are implicitly spreading a red carpet for the Dogs-of-War, blowing a trumpet to invite the khaki boys.
Where is Parliament?
Can Parliament fast track tough laws against electricity theft: like public whipping for those convicted of electricity theft; and minimum sentence of 15 years for those convicted in court of electricity theft?
I pause,
Oswald Hanciles, The Guru