The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairman for VIP Group Sierra Leone Limited, Ahmed H. Hashim, popularly known as VIP with the firm support of the Government of Sierra Leone, under the hardwoking and dynamic Inspector General of Police (IGP), William Faya Sellu, a total of One Hundred and Twenty Thousand (120, 000) bags of the new brand VIP RICE are currently on distribution among members of the Force for Good nationwide. In his brief statement, VIP informed the media that each police officer is going to receive six (6) bags of the newly introduced VIP Premium Perboiled Rice at once, from Saturday, 13th May 2023 onwards until the last police officer is reached. According to some police officers that interacted with this medium, since his company was contracted few years ago, VIP had brought lots of positive changes in the aspect of rice supply among senior and junior officers, noting that the inception of VIP as police rice supplier hadn’t only brought relief, but had also put to an end or laid to rest the issue of back log among our committed officers. However, VIP applauded the government through IGP Sellu for commitment to continue improving welfare among members of the police force as mandated by law.

By Mustapha Dumbuya The Strong Girls, United Women organization on Saturday 6th May, 2023 opened a new office at 245 Bai Bureh Road, Wellington in Freetown. Strong Girls, United Women is geared towards supporting women and girls in Sierra Leone, empowering women in providing agricultural seeds as well as ensuring that women get educational opportunities, more especially for the girl child. Skills training and knowledge in business and empowerment of young ladies is part of their work. This will enable them to contribute to the development of themselves and their communities as a whole.

As part of its corporate social responsibility, Orangs Sierra Leone as one of the leading mobile telecommunication companies in Sierra Leone has been working diligently supporting the government of Sierra Leone by tackling climate change and safety environment. The Company has a collective responsibility on tackling climate change and providing environmental protection and sensitizing the public on the need to reduce Sierra Leone’s carbon emissions. Recently, the Company took almost a week working on the environmental health and safety week to tackle both climate change and the need to have a safe environment in the country. The week-long activities culminated with OSL employees planting 3,000 trees at the mud slide site of Mortomeh community, led by the CEO Sekou Amadou Bah, in partnership with Youth Alliance and Commonwealth. Orange SL has also been a responsible corporate citizen recognizing the need to take sustainable action by reducing its carbon footprint, as the need to increase the company’s renewable energy ratio by optimizing its operations and investing in renewable energy consumption. The importance of Environmental Health and Safety Week is the process of involving, identifying, assessing, and controlling the risk associated with the activities, products and services that could impact the lives of the people in Sierra Leone.  Orange SL has funded several training programs in Freetown and in the provincial areas on both Environmental Health and Safety by providing environmental conservation for the people in Sierra Leone.

The high spate of corruption going on at the Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority (SLRSA) with millions of Leones allegedly finding its way into private pockets is blamed squarely on the shoulders of the SLRSA Executive Director, Rev. Smart K. Senesie. Our investigations reveal that even though Rev. Senesie would have had an inkling about a corrupt deal that was about to be carried out, he would allegedly feign ignorance or absent himself at the time the corrupt act is about to take place or in the process of taking place. The aloof and ‘I-don’t-care’ manner Rev. Smart K. Senesie has been putting on since he assumed office is raising many eyebrows. Many people that are following the trend of events at the SLRSA are more than convinced that Rev. Smart K. Senesie knows very well all that is going on as he was first Chairman of the SLRSA Board before he was appointed Executive Director. The Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority (SLRSA) was established by an Act of Parliament to complement the Sierra Leone Police and road safety in the country. Autospect Sierra Leone was awarded the contract for the provision of vehicle and driver’s licenses and number plates as well as the temporary vehicle registration tag. Among others, it appears that it is a sham deal as the government’s Transport and Aviation Ministry and the Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority (SLRSA) have privatized the License Department for Autospect – SL. As a result, many staff members may have been made redundant. The Public Review newspaper has gathered that Autospect is giving the SLRSA a 20% cut from earnings and for all other transactions involving money are done strictly on a cash-in-hand basis. Autospect does not use the swift system in use in Sierra Leone, it avoids making payments through the banks, which has raised eyebrows, and tongues are wagging about money being laundered the better judgment against of government’s financial policies. Curiously, though, licenses and other registrations pertaining to payment for obtaining vehicles license has scandalously been raised over 200%. The arrangement scheduled for a review of this spooky scheme has been stalled. Since 2016, due to a bad agreement reached between the Minister of Transport and Autospect for his aggrandizement, Autospect, a Lebanese outfit with no track record apart from having raised its ugly head in this country, has been giving a 20% hand shake to the SLRSA monthly. According to sources, Autospect staff are receiving all monetary transactions through cash-in-hand even though all transactions should go through the banking services. Autospect makes a whooping Le 1 Billion daily. It has increased the price for the renewal of vehicle licenses from Le 600,000 old prices to Le 1, 33,000 old Leones for jeep, and TVR from Le 250,000 to Le 640, 0000. This situation at SLRSA is pathetic. Falling short of fulfilling its mandate and core functions for licensing vehicles, the listless problems began soon after bypassing local bidders with a history of a good reputation in that sort of industry only for Autospect to come in with no background checked at all. Autospect Sierra Leone is a Lebanese company that was awarded that contract by the Sierra Leone Road Safety Authorities (SLRSA) through the back door and after failing the local content policy. “It was directed to print, issue and renew vehicles licenses in Sierra Leone,” an angry vehicle owner echoed. According to an investigation carried out by the Public Review newspaper, hundreds of customers are unhappy and fed up with the company. Autospect, a backyard company from Lebanon, had already collected monies from unsuspecting customers issue vehicle number plates, licenses, and vehicle fitness examining. To the customers chagrin, they are still waiting hopelessly.   Investigations also revealed that Autospect Sierra Leone had shut down operations for over 5 days without issuing any notice to the public and its buying customers. It is scandalous. How could they shut down operations without any proper notice to its customers? The increment of licenses fees without noticing the public is tantamount to corruption and corrupt practices by the company warranting the intervention of the ACC. As it stands, since Autospect shut down its operations, there is no statement from the company to ascertain what may have given rise to the shutdown.