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FREETOWN: NEW PEOPLE INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: As Guinean soldiers extend their reach within the Yenga area and as other problems fester within the military, Major (Rtd) Pallor Conteh has again drawn stark attention to his own personal indiscretions that have compromised his integrity. At a time when the International Military Assistance and Training Team (IMATT), has invested money and men in re-organising, re-training, equipping, and financing the Sierra Leone military, Maj (Rtd) Pallor Conteh's unprofessionalism is threatening to undo all that good will and good work.

Recent antics by the Defence Minister hearken back to the tin-pot days of crude and untrained soldiering during the early war years. In case the Defence Minister did not know this, the role of the Minister for Defence is not to act as a dorm prefect or as the junior military police officer he was nearly 20 years ago. When he whipped up a media storm by wearing combat fatigues complete with epaulettes and insignia and red beret, one would have forgiven his fashion choice or sheer megalomania associated with middle-age. But when this is transformed into Maj (rtd) Palor Conteh, Minister of Defence, harrassing staff of the MoD and micro-managing every aspect of their lives, then there is a problem. Last monday, The New People corespondent (on a tip off) saw Maj (RTD) Pallor Conteh sitting at a security post with his attendant complement of bodyguard. He was forcing everyone to sign a register no matter what the person's rank is. Like in some surreal movie about tin-pot private soldiers wielding guns at a checkpoint, Maj (Rtd) Pallor Conteh and retinue became more agitated after 8.00 a.m. The Defence Minister is to formulate and implement the government's defence policy, not sit at a guard post harrassing secretarial and other administrative staff.

This would sound like hands-on management were it not for his deliberate effort to dismantle the civilian management structure of the Sierra Leone military that IMATT and DFID have put into place to administer the Sierra Leone army. In IMATT's wisdom, this would de-politicise the army with army personnel doing what they do and leaving the management of their affairs to competent civilian technocrats. In fact, Pallor Conteh is once more frantically politicising and diving the otherwise coherent army. Some junior officers who are beholden to Maj (Rtd) Pallor Conteh and who are said to be close to a niche of favoured officers by dint of their affiliation to the current ruling party have virtually been assigned administrative roles in the military.

Pallor Conteh has further set out to dismantle civilian authority over the army by advocating the removal of official vehicles from all senior civil servants associated with the MoD except Permanent Secretaries. His Cabinet colleagues, including the President, do not know that Pallor Conteh's motive is that he simply detests civilian control of the military and he is making every effort to dismantle that management structure and return what he has called "GLORIOUS DAYS IN THE ARMY" where he'd drive around at breakneck speed in vehicles bristling with all manner of weapons and deliberately flouting civil authority with impunity.

But his unprofessionalism is evident in his actions. He has, without firm reason, removed vehicles from senior officers. He has then allocated the same vehicles to very junior military officers who run his errands and traffic his multiple girlfriends, their relatives, and their friends. The New People correspondent has observed in the last three days that Major (Rtd) has currently self-assigned four vehicles to himself and to his "operations" in trafficking women in and out of his office and his residence. This is in spite of the fact that he expects some very senior officers to struggle and find their way to work. Among the fleet are the following vehicles:

1. 22 SL 33;
2. ACQ 782;
3. AAL 005;
4. The officially assigned vehicle, to which he is entitled as Minister of Defence.

Maj (Rtd) Pallor Conteh has also indicated on a number of occasions that IMATT has nothing to say about how he lives his life and to whoever he assigns vehicles. Besides, issues of public accountability and the misuse of public funds comes up. Maj (Rtd) Pallor Conteh receives more than 50 gallons of fuel every week for each of the four vehicles. What that means therefore is that just to fulfill his lifestyle and his personal indiscretions, Maj (Rtd) Pallor Conteh is abusing his office by using public money/state funds by using up to 200 gallons of fuel every week. He has also publicly threatened that the retrenchment exercise he is about to undertake will force out senior officers who he does not personally want in the army and who, he says, are not loyal to the ruling APC. All of a sudden, the logic of the army cuts begins to make sense.