Sierra Leone: ex-president Koroma summoned by anti-corruption investigators

Anti-corruption investigators in Sierra Leone said on Wednesday they had summoned former President Ernest Bai Koroma, after authorities in the poor West African country pledged to recover tens of millions of dollars that were said to have vanished. under his presidency.

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Several former officials of the Koroma administration, in power from 2007 to 2018, have already been arrested as part of the fight against corruption and the waste of public funds initiated by his successor Julius Maada Bio.

After a year of work, a commission of inquiry concluded last March that millions of dollars remained untraceable after having scrutinized the accounts of ministries (Education, Youth, Mines) and public enterprises.

Sierra Leone's Anti-Corruption Commission, an independent body pursuing the investigation, called for ex-President Koroma to appear before it in person on October 5, its spokesperson Patrick Sandy said on Wednesday.

The services of the former head of state, requested by AFP, did not immediately react to this summons.

Supporters of the former ruling party, the APC, have repeatedly denounced a

The justice ministry said earlier this week that Ernest Bai Koroma was not allowed to leave the national territory because of this investigation.

The measure also concerns some 130 personalities linked to his regime, including former ministers, former senior officials, deputies and former directors of public companies.

The economy of this former British colony, plagued by corruption, was devastated by a civil war (1991-2002) which left some 120,000 dead.

It remains fragile after the shocks of the Ebola epidemic in 2014-2016, the fall in world commodity prices and the appearance this year of the new coronavirus.

The current president promised last week to

on corruption in his country and to oblige former officials to return the missing sums.