Commentary

The erstwhile Minister of Transport and Aviation in the President Ernest Bai Koroma led APC government is presently between the deep blue sea and the devil as enraged citizens who are still cynical over the overpriced cost of the 100 buses are now calling on the Minister to account. The demand comes in the wake after Balogun Koroma told one of the local newspapers that the current President Bio Government needs to buy additional 100 new buses to support the pending free education program.

Many citizens have been quick to ask that he must first accounts for the 100 buses that he used emergency Executive Clearance to buy from China with an invisible and non- functional mobile garage at the whopping cost of 10 Million United States Dollars.

It can be recalled that in 2015 when the nation and its international partners were busy fighting the ravaging Ebola Virus Disease, against the better advise of the current Financial Secretary and the then Minister of Finance, that the country could not afford to take the loan for the buses, Balogun Koroma went ahead to buy them. Hence, eyebrows were raised in many quarters over the cost of the buses which became the subject of a parliamentary enquiry. Balogun Koroma justified his excess by stating that the buses will not only pay for themselves but will form the nucleus of a larger fleet that will be purchased from revenue collected by the 100 buses.

With the new Bio administration fussy about enforcing transparency and accountability especially in the handling of government finances and assets, the nation is now keen to know how many of the 100 buses Balogun Koroma bought are still in service, what revenue they have generated and if any addition has been made to them from the revenue they have generated .