SABOTAGE
…2 DEPUTY DIRECTORS FOR CORRECTIONAL SERVICE
By MOHAMED KONNEH
According to the Sierra Leone Correctional Services Act 2014, the Director General and the Deputy Director General shall be appointed by the President acting on the advice of the council subject to the approval of parliament. Also in the history of the Sierra Leone Correctional Service there has not been a time when two Deputy Directors have been appointed when there is a substantive Deputy Director.
This is the current situation at the Sierra Leone Correctional Service with Mr. Tommy Bull and Mr. Lamin Bangura’s appointment as Deputy Director Generals.
The two appointments accordingly undermines the authority of President Julius Maada Bio’s authority who is mandated to appoint both the Director General and Deputy and both appointments shall be approved by parliament.
Inside source says the appointments is believed to have been done by the some people within council who have no authority to do so and this accordingly will breed bad blood in the Sierra Leone correctional service if nothing is done.
For the two appointments, Mr. Tommy Bull will retire in January of 2025 while Mr. Lamin Bangura stays on who has more age on his side.
Mr. Lamin Bangura with all due respect has done 28 years at the Correctional Service a holder of an IT Degree from Njala University. He is among officers who sometime back were selected for UN Mission but failed the entrance woefully, bringing shame to not only the Correctional service but the country as a whole.
Also the Correctional Service do not have a regulatory framework for promotion and no operational manual except the act and this leave room for abuse by authorities at the helm of affairs.
This is the current situation at the Sierra Leone correctional service.
“We still have a substantive Deputy Director General who was recommended by the Sierra Leone Correctional Service Council and approved by parliament. What is the fate of the substantive Deputy Director who is out of the country studying?” This is the question by many as the Sierra Leone correctional service act made provision for only one Deputy Director. There is already a bad blood brewing at the Sierra Leone Correctional Service after that infamous leak audio that was directed at people believed to be members of the Sierra Leone Peoples party.
This latest development if not handled has the potential to divide the service the more. Standard Times reached out to Brigadier General Sulaiman Sheikh Massaquoi the current Acting Director General on this matter but refused to respond on the issue.
