Revisiting The GTT Report 2018

By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)

On Wednesday 4 July 2018, a team of seemingly narrow-minded people with an uncalled for hatred for everything reddish presented a Report to President Julius Maada Bio at State House in Freetown.

The Report of the Governance Transition Team (GTT) 2018, later known as “The GTT Report 2018”, uses a greenish brush to paint the previous All People’s Congress (APC) government of President Ernest Bai Koroma as one that was engaged in “an astonishing level of fiscal indiscipline and rampant corruption”. It also accuses the former APC government of pursuing “a policy of tribalism and regionalism in its recruitment and promotion of personnel at State House, in Government agencies and commissions, and in diplomatic postings”.

And that’s not all. The Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP)’s “Transition Team” further accuses the previous APC administration of making “Ethnically favoured appointments” that “constituted roughly 71 percent of all senior and middle-level appointments and postings to the country’s foreign missions….” And that “Ethnic favouritism was also reflected in the APC Government’s award of GoSL [Government of Sierra Leone] contracts, scholarships, commercial bank loans and regional distribution of development projects….”

Before going into the nitty-gritty of today’s One Dropian dropping, let me first take a look at the composition of that SLPP Transition Team: Professor David J. Francis (Chair), Dr Abass C. Bundu (member), Dr Morie Manyeh (member), Mrs. Kona Koroma (member), Mr Jacob Jusu Saffa (member), Alhaji Kanja Sesay (member), Dr Alie Kabba (member), PC Charles Caulker (member), Mr Umaru Koroma (member), Mr Dennis Vandi (member), Ms. Melrose Kargbo (member), Mr Sahr Jusu (member), Hon. Suahilo Koroma (member) and Dr Dennis Sandy (Secretary).

Taking a critical look at that composition, one realises that that Transition Team is ethnically and regionally imbalanced. With the exceptions of Dr Abass C. Bundu, Mr Umaru Koroma, and Ms. Melrose Kargbo; all the other members are south-easterners with the commonality of a single mother tongue tongue-ing through their tongues! If out of the 14 members, only three are northerners; then what percentage will that give us? Don’t frown—I’m only returning the Bio-led administration’s favour! So, from the onset, the SLPP government nurtured the monstrous monster it accused the APC of being Frankenstein-ed whilst in governance!

Now, it has been over eight years since those allegations and accusations were made by Prof. David Francis as Chairman and Dr Dennis Sandy as Secretary of the SLPP 2018 Transition Team. But what has actually changed? Nothing—except that the “astonishing level of fiscal indiscipline” has become astonishingly astonishing and the “rampant corruption” has become rampantly rampant! Fiscal indiscipline and rampant corruption are no longer abstractions; they are now wearing an SLPP-ian face!

If one should go by all the Audit Reports from Audit Service Sierra Leone (ASSL) from 2020 to 2025; one will be astonished to find out the high level of fiscal indiscipline under the watchful watch of President Bio. While the 2020 Audit Report notes that, “The estimated cash losses identified in the course of our audit amounted to Le153.9 billion”; the 2023 Audit Report tells us that, “A review of withdrawals from selected MDs imprest bank accounts revealed that transactions totaling NLe18,129,006.37, US$3,004,387.25 and €3,615.48 were not supported by relevant documentary evidence.” The 2024 Audit Report magnifies the Bio-led administration’s fiscal recklessness as it “shows that total expenditure for the financial year amounted to NLe24.62 billion, as against an approved budget of NLe23.52 billion. This resulted in an overspending of NLe1.09 billion.” And I will not even comment on the 2025 Audit Report because it seems that the SLPP’s handpicked Auditor-General, Abdul Aziz, dipped a green brush in a bucket of whitewash and dabbed it over the Bio-led administration’s fiscal indiscipline!

And before I leave the audit issues, I will highlight another part in the GTT Report 2018 where it is stated that under the last APC administration, “The national currency [The Leone] became moribund, trading at Le.7600 to a dollar”. Well, the SLPP government of Bio has done so extremely well with the economy that the moribund Leone is now trading at over NLe 2, 300 (equivalent to Le 23,000 old Leones) to a dollar. What is interestingly interesting is the manner in which members of the Bio-led administration conjure and dole out data and statistics to convince starving and jobless Sierra Leoneans that their lives are far off better today than they were ten years ago! But it is commonsensical that if someone’s economic situation has improved, s/he will need no convincing just as Barack Obama notes in his book, The Audacity of Hope, that an argument of whether it is raining outside can be settled by stepping outside.

Another favour I will like to return to the SLPP government of Bio is where the Transition Team accuses the former APC government of pursuing “a policy of tribalism and regionalism in its recruitment and promotion of personnel at State House, in Government agencies and commissions, and in diplomatic postings”. Today, eight years after that accusation was made in front of rolling cameras, if Sir Albert Margai would revisit Sierra Leone from his grave and do an ethno-regional audit of all the current Presidential appointments, recruitments and promotions of personnel in all Government’s institutions; he will be ashamed that someone has beaten him hands down at his own ethno-regional project! And looking at the current workforce at State House, in Government Agencies, at the Commissions, and in Diplomatic Missions; one will notice that the SLPP’s motto of “One Country, One People” has a sort of lewd paradoxical twist on it! Even if, for the sake of argument, the APC had allegedly been engaged in ethno-regionalism; the current SLPP government appears to have taken it to the extreme like extremists plying their extremism to the extreme!

And as if to fling the fox into the chickens’ coop, the SLPP’s 2018 Transition Team even accuses the previous APC government of neglecting Kenema and Kono Districts “in terms of roads infrastructure”. Now, some of us are beginning to appreciate the reason behind the sudden rush to transform Bonthe District into the Sierra Leonean version of Russia’s Sochi (the largest resort city in that country). We are now figuring out why Jos Leijdekkers, or ‘Bolle Jos’ (‘Fat Jos’ in Dutch), the convicted Dutch cocaine kingpin, was reportedly seen inside a church in Bonthe District where the First Family was also in attendance. And some of us are now beginning to appreciate the reason behind the abandonment of the proposed Mamamah International Airport and other roads infrastructure in the north and north-western parts of the country because of the perceived “neglect” of Kenema and Kono Districts by the previous APC government (Please check, above, the composition of the SLPP 2018 Transition Team and you will figure out why Kenema and Kono were particularly mentioned in that Report!).

But as a Senegalese proverb says, “Haste and hurry can only bear children with many regrets along the way”; so are some members of the SLPP 2018 Transition Team. Looking at all the Audit Reports (from 2020 to 2025) from Audit Service Sierra Leone (ASSL) that have been published and knowing what he now knows about real governance, Prof. Francis might be regretting why he referred to the last APC government as a “politically-organised racketeering enterprise” that was engaged in “egregious infractions” (I’m wondering what he would now say to the allegation that the current State House once-upon-a-time forged receipts to justify what appears to be reckless overseas traveling!). Jacob Jusu Saffa might have now realised that the “bread and butter issues” are not “labo labo” but real issues that need realistic approaches not partisan mumbo-jumbos. And Dr Dennis Sandy might have now realised that arrogance does not bear fruitful fruits as he is now Long-Benching (another One Dropian word) like a clown waiting for his turn to perform at the circus!

And as I revisit the GTT Report 2018; I realise that when Prof. David Francis, as Chairman of the Transition Team, was doing his presentation to President Julius Maada Bio at State House in Freetown, he was giving his audience(s) the yardsticks by which his own SLPP government should be assessed!

medsankoh@yahoo.com/+232-76-611-986