Rent paid for 5 out of 71 rooms at Stadium Hostels
July 18, 2019
By Hassan Gbassay Koroma
National stadium hostels in Freetown
Stadium General Manager, Paul Damulay, has told the Commission of Inquiry presided over by Justice Biobele Georgewill that rent were paid for only five out of 71 rooms occupied at the National Stadium Hostels.
He disclosed that the remaining rooms were occupied by the Ministry of Youth Affairs, Chinese Technical Team and individual government officials.
He said Stadium Management is autonomous of the Ministry of Sport, but that as a manager, he is answerable to the Director of Sport in the said ministry.
He told the commission that he took over from one Musa Sesay in November 2018 and that he was charged with the day-to-day administration of the facility.
He said stadium management generates funds through activities that they host on daily basis, including renting of conference halls, the main bold, the hostels and payment for advertisement by mobile companies.
He said monies they generate from renting the facilities were paid directly to the finance department, which the deposit it into the management account at the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank.
He stated that 90% of the said money is used to pay salaries while 10% is used for maintenance of the facility.
He explained that the hostels facility has three floors and that the second floor is occupied by the Ministry of Youth Affairs.
He added that part of the third floor was also occupied by the Chinese Technical Team and that they were also not paying rent to the management.
He said the remaining 30 rooms were currently occupied by some government officials and some ordinary citizens, noting that management was receiving rent for only five rooms out of the remaining 30 rooms that are not occupied by the Ministry and the Chinese Technical Team.
He said when he took over six months ago, he met an overdraft backlog and also inherited ten million Leones in the account, adding that he had paid the backlog, with over 40 million Leones currently in the said account.
Also, Finance Officer of Stadium Management, Thomas Wilson, told the commission that he started working in 2012 as assistant finance officer and that in 2015 he was promoted to finance officer.
He said part of his duties were to receive rent for stadium and prepares payment voucher.
He said rent payment of the stadium facilities were not fixed, but negotiable and that requests for those facilities were addressed to the General Manager.
He stated that people sometimes pay 15 to 20 million Leones for using the stadium main bold, while two to three million Leones were usually paid for the conference halls, adding that three hundred thousand Leones is paid monthly for the hostels rooms.
He disclosed that the stadium management has two years advertisement contracts with Shankadas and Sons Limited worth Le40 million, Africell Le76 million and Orange Le95 million, and that those contracts are renewable in every two years.