Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio will launch a commission to investigate accusations of widespread corruption under his predecessor Ernest Koroma, the government said.
A report commissioned by Bio and released last week accused Koroma of taking the economy to the brink of collapse – though the former leader’s APC party dismissed it as a witch-hunt.
Koroma, who stepped down in April after two terms in office, was not immediately available for comment but has denied any wrongdoing in the past and has said the report is part of a smear campaign.
Since Bio took over, former Vice President Victor Foh has been charged with embezzling money while former mines minister Mansaray Minkailu has been charged over his role in the sale of a stake in a mining project.
Lawyers for Foh and Mansaray could not be reached for comment.
“The President has directed the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice to immediately lead on the establishment of a judge-led Commission of Inquiry,” said a government statement released late on Monday. Judges will be named “shortly”, it added.
Sierra Leone, recovering from a decade of civil war that ended in 2002, saw its economy hit by a slump in global commodity prices and an Ebola epidemic that peaked in 2014.
The report accused the previous administration of exploiting the Ebola outbreak to award contracts to companies with close ties to APC party officials.
The party dismissed the accusations, saying they were an attempt to distract attention from Bio’s first 100 days in office, which it called a “complete failure”.
Only last week Sierra Leone’s former Vice President Victor Foh and former Mines Minister Minkailu Mansaray were arrested on Thursday on charges of alleged corruption, a spokesman for the West African country’s anti-corruption commission said.
The arrests come the day after a separate commission appointed by President Julius Maada Bio alleged that corruption was “rampant” under his predecessor Ernest Koroma, including the theft of state property and the funneling of state contracts to officials’ relatives and close friends.
Representatives for Foh and Mansaray could not be immediately reached for comment. Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) head Francis Ben Kaifala said both men would be released on bail on Thursday afternoon.
Koroma has not yet responded to the accusations in Wednesday’s report but his APC party dismissed it as a politically-motivated witch hunt.
Bio was in opposition but defeated a candidate from Koroma’s APC party in an election in March after campaigning to stamp out graft in a country whose economy was hit by an Ebola epidemic that peaked in 2014 and a slump in global commodity prices.
Bio pledged in May to follow through with campaign promises to review mining contracts and consider legislative changes to ensure that the country benefits from its reserves of diamonds, mineral sands and bauxite.
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