When President Donald Trump asked the United States Senate to grant him permission to build the wall along the border with Mexico and Congress refused, what did he do, which is absolutely legal and within the law to get the money to start building the wall?
Give a dog a bad name in order to kill it, is what the enemies and detractors of Mohamed Gento Kamara want to do to him, in spite of abundant evidence that the country’s most patriotic roads contractor, like Donald Trump, never had any malicious intent to defraud the Government and people of this our beloved country.
Admitted that the then Director General of the Road Maintenance Fund Administration went outside of his official remit of extending a credit of USD5 Million to Betton Ville, Gento’s parent road construction company, as reported by the Auditor General’s Office.
What however is not stated, but was made abundantly clear was that the Government, which at the time was financially constrained, did the expedient thing to order the RMFA through the Ministry of Finance to extend the USD5 Million credit to Gento’s company, in lieu of a 30% advance owed his company for ongoing road work.
As such, documentary evidence has proven beyond all reasonable doubt that Mohamed Gento Kamara, the Chief Executive Officer of Gento Group of Companies, is not indebted to Government to the tune of USD5 Million as it is being peddled by certain mischievous rumor mongers and saboteurs.
When the Audit Service recommended that the transaction was not within the remit of RMFA, even though authorized by the then Government, and for the money to be returned to the Consolidated Revenue Fund, again, the Government and RMFA did what was expedient; they allowed Gento to use it as advance payment for the Waterloo township roads contract that his company had won. This is very simple to understand that nothing criminal was done by Gento, and for that matter, even the Government and RMFA.
It should not come as any big surprise that in this country certain people become very jealous of individuals who are progressive and will go to extreme lengths to pull them down for no just reason (s) other than mere envy.
Reference could be made to individuals like Sam King who was running a successful stationery business entity, an importer and retailer of basic goods Med T, Paul Francis (Elder brother of the Chief Minister), who was on the verge of facilitating the establishment of a commercial bank in this country, but prevented from doing so and a host of others were all undermined and destroyed.
This trend of sabotaging successful entrepreneurs has been seriously derailing development. What has been really established as an indisputable fact is that moves made by certain ill motivated individuals to pull down progressive individuals and entrepreneurs have been and is definitely bringing the country down and not directly the individuals targeted.
The simple fact that these individuals are helping in the areas of providing jobs for many Sierra Leoneans, paying taxes to Government means that they are contributing positively towards economic development and poverty reduction. What if they decide to fold up their businesses? Then it is possible that it will result in many becoming jobless thereby accentuating massive hardship and poverty.
The crux of the matter is that there was a Memorandum of Understanding wherein, SLRA which is the parent body of RMFA agreed to fund road contractors on behalf of the Government of Sierra Leone.
SLRA through RMFA was to pay Gento 30 percent advance for the Waterloo township roads project. The amount should have been Le12.8 billion. Gento received Le7.8 billion.
The balanced account remained with RMFA which had the onus of reconciling its books with the Ministry of Finance. RMFA was insisting that the Ministry of Finance should hand over the balance to them, but they were refused on the grounds that it was Government money and they were not entitled to it. What Gento was paid as advance is clearly recorded at the Accountant General department and with his bank. He was to receive USD12.8 million, but he received less and not in dollars but in Leones.
What some are failing to realize is that strict adherence and proper use made of the Local Content Policy could be the engine for overall national development. Mohamed Gento Kamara is a very good example of an ambitious indigenous businessman who has been doing extremely well in terms of constructing and rehabilitating qualitative roads in different parts of the country. He has helped in the direction of job creation that has improved standards of living of many families as well as timely payment of taxes.
It will therefore be understandable that his successes may not go down well with certain people, who will not spare any opportunity to defame and smear his good image, but there is a popular belief that he who God has blessed cannot be easily destroyed.
Gento is really unperturbed and cannot be shattered by detractors, who have been politically castigating him.
