BY THOMAS DIXON
232NEWS, FREETOWN
In a desperate move to defend the decision of the government of Sierra Leone of its recent cabinet resolution to mortgage Sierra Leone’s Pepel Ports and Rail to the Chinese, the Ministry of Information and Communication called a Press Conference at the sophisticated Radisson Blu Hotel in Freetown, last Friday 27th October.
The Press Conference which was meant to convince the media on government’s decision ended up confusing Sierra Leoneans as the Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources. Julius Mathai put up an arrogant and prejudiced posture to explain Government’s decision to lease the Port and Rail for 20 years to Kingho.
The Minister claimed that he will give context to the media by providing a PowerPoint presentation on the whole issue but what the Minister did was to delve into historicity of the mining sector and provided slides of map and pictures of his Kingho sponsored visit to China.
The Minister said that nobody from Arise has spoken to him either as Minister of Mines or as Chair of National Mineral Agency (NMA) of Sierra Leone but that China Kingho did a brilliant presentation to him and that is the reason he advised government to go with them.
When asked about owning a company that has a vested interest in the sector and one that is doing multiple consultancies in the mining sector and for Kingho, the Minister of Mines vexedly responded that his professional standards stand out.
“Yes! I own a company and it is INTEGEMS. It is a multi-disciplinary consultancy, it is Integrated Geoinformation and Environmental Management Service-NTEGEMS. I employed about 39 staff who are contributing to the tax of this country. I hope you will sleep well,” Mathai arrogantly summed.
He added that he has not broken any rules in the ACC Act not countenancing section 56 sub section 3 of the 1991 constitution which grand law of Sierra Leone states, “A Minister or a Deputy Minister shall not, while he continues in office, hold any other office of profit or emolument whether by way of allowances or otherwise, whether private or public, and either directly or indirectly.”
Sierra Leoneans now await what the President will do as his Minister has confessed to owning a company in the same sector he is supervising.
