By Mabinty M. Kamara
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) says several properties with ties to former government officials have been sealed off pending investigations.
The properties which have been barricaded by the police on the orders of the anti-graft agency are said to been connected to ongoing investigations of unexplained wealth or proceeds of corruption.
At least two of the buildings have been claimed by individuals who served in the administration of former President Ernest Bai Koroma, according to the Commission.
Patrick Sandi, Director of Public Education and Outreach at the ACC, said former Defence Minister Pallo Conteh has personally visited the Commission to claim one of the buildings. He said former Deputy Minister of Transport and Aviation, Ibrahim Woshingai Mansaray, also made a telephone call to the Commission, claiming another ownership of another building.
Sandi however said that even those who laid claim to the building have not presented any document. “For now these properties are not tied to anybody’s name we cannot say that this is a property of Mr. A or B, what we have in our possession are properties that are deemed to be proceeds of corruption or unexplained wealth and we are hopeful that somebody will come forward to show for it, but in a situation where no one comes for it we will do the needful”, he said.
Sandi explained that the needful will be to convert it to state property, as they did a building identified in Kono recently. The Ribar hotel in Koidu Town was also connected to investigations of corrupt proceeds. The keys to the building has since been presented to the Attorney General and Minister of Justice.
Last Thursday the ACC put out a notice, announcing that it had barricaded at least three buildings located in the West end of Freetown and it warned that those who have ownership should contact the Commission with relevant documents.
Section 9 of the Anti-Corruption Act of 2008 made the ACC an independent institution mandated by law to look into corruption and to control or eradicate it and as well to recover government properties, especially if it’s peculiar where they are deemed to be misappropriated or tampered with.
According to a spokesman of the Commission, Section 119 of the same Act provides for asset declaration.
“That particular section provides for every public official to declare his or her assets in 90 days before assuming public office and thereafter within same period, failure to do so there are compliance sanctions in the Act,” said Success I Kamara, Assistant Public Relations Officer ACC.
He told Politico that the drafters of the ACC Act captured Section 119 because they wanted to ensure accountability and transparency in public life. He said the commission received close to 40,000 asset declaration forms yearly, and that the forms are analyzed by the ACC to know what these public officials had before coming to the office and while leaving the office. Kamara said it based on investigations that they take necessary actions.
“If there are other properties that are not captured in the information provided in the form, then it is being deemed as possessions of an unexplained wealth,” he said.
Kamara said it is in light of this that the ACC, in a joint action with the Commissions of Inquiry, have had to put the necessary restrictions on the properties that have become subject to investigation.
Assert declaration is a constitutional mandate of all vying for public offices in order to avoid conversion of state resources into personal use that at the end results in an unexplained wealth, a situation common with most Africa countries.
But in Sierra Leone, assert declaration by public officials including the president, are done in private to the ACC. Many accountability campaigners have spoken against that.
ACC Commissioner, Francis Ben Kaifala, has however argued that in as much as the people want the asset declaration public, they should also consider the privacy and security of those officials considering the nature of the society.
© 2019 Politico Online
