Insinuations and reports from certain press quarters that President Ernest Bai Koroma has spent a whooping one million two hundred thousand dollars ($1.02 million) on foreign trips to African countries alone are not only false but calculated to undermine the efforts of the President to turn Sierra Leone around.

The President has not engaged in any foreign travel that has not been absolutely necessary in the interest of the state. It should be noted that most of these trips are either state visits or official conferences.

And in all of this, the President never received any per diem. All that is allocated to him is an imprest, which is handled by the State Chief of Protocol, for personal needs. In most visits, this amount is not exhausted, and the balance is therefore returned to the state coffers.

As a transparent government, accountable to its people, it is to be noted that the government of Sierra Leone has not spent a quarter of what is alleged on all the President’s overseas travels thus far. Suffice it to say that the benefits already accrued from these visits, not to mention the future advantages, are worth the venture.

Meanwhile, it must also be noted that the catering contract for the Independence Day celebrations awarded to Paladio Restaurant cost far less than one billion five hundred million leones (Le1.5 billion) as alleged. There were a total of five catering contracts awarded to different service providers, each of which received less than twenty million leones (Le 20 million). In fact State House received less than one hundred and fifty million leones (Le150 million) for the total cost of all the Independence celebrations.

Paladio, like all the others, was awarded the contract because they presented the lowest bid for the activity, and the President never interfered with the process at any stage.