By Mabinty M. Kamara
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has launched a new five-year strategy to curb graft.
The launch of the National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS) 2019-2023 was graced by Chief Minister Professor David Francis who use the occasion to reemphasise the government’s commitment to fighting graft.
This is the 4th strategy since the inception of the commission in 2000. Like the previous strategies, this one is aimed at building an ethical and an accountable country that promotes zero tolerance to corruption and to inspire integrity, transparency, accountability and the rule of law.
The new strategy, according to officials, was built on the implementation and lessons learnt from the previous strategies.
Prof. Francis, in his statement, said a major strength of this strategy is that it is aligned to the national development plan of the New Direction Government. He noted that the desire of the Bio Administration is for the ongoing Commissions Of Inquiry (COI) to be the last in Sierra Leone after the tenure of political administrations.
“I have said that this should be the last Commission of Inquiry. So it is our responsibility as the New Direction Government to hold ourselves accountable to ensure that we do not have any other commissions of enquiry. But all that depends on how we conduct ourselves in the next ten or twenty years,” he said.
Francis commended ACC Commissioner Francis Ben Kaifala and his team for their stride in the fight against corruption, noting that if people can now abandon mansions and hotel buildings because of fear of being prosecuted, there must be an enforcement strategy to ensure that people own up to their actions.
“I know the temptations, the hassles, the emotional and moral blackmails involved in fighting corruption, but it is a fight that we must fight and a fight that we must win as said by the president,” he said.
In his statement, ACC Commissioner Kaifela said that the strategy was built upon three fundamental pillars: enforcement, prevention and education. He noted that at the center of it all is enforcement. The anti-graft chief added that the strategy is a product of extensive consultation with relevant stakeholders on corruption.
In the new strategy, enforcement takes center stage while public education and prevention will sevre as backstopping tools, Commissioner Kaifala said on a tweeter post prior to the launch of the strategy
While explaining the process involved in preparing the document, Kaifala said they realized that previous strategies had been done by consultants whose aims were influenced by commercial interests: that is finish the work and get paid.
“So we identified people in our society who by their actions over the years have shown a commitment to transparency, nation building, a dedication to see a transformed Sierra Leone. So what you see here today is a product of a selfless effort of Sierra Leoneans to produce a nationally owned anti-corruption strategy,” he said.
Vice President Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, who officially launched the document, called on all relevant stakeholders to join the government in the fight against corruption, assuring of the existence of the political will to attain the ultimate goal.
“This is a fight that we must win regardless of the stakes that are involved. We will fight corruption in the interest of this nation until we are reasonably convinced that it no longer poses a threat to the existence of the very state,” he stressed.
The VP went on to say that as a government, they had achieved a lot in the fight against corruption and the recovery of looted funds. He revealed that in the last 16 months, the ACC had recovered Le17.6billion, equivalent to US$2million. He also noted that there had been increase in corruption reports as well as the number of convictions of corrupt officials.
© 2019 Politico Online
