By A. K. Vandi
kaikpanda@gmail.com
At a symbolic ceremony recently, the Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Francis Ben Keifala presented a check for nearly one million United States dollars to President Julius Maada Bio. The presentation, unprecedented in the history of Sierra Leone, represented the first batch of monies that have been retrieved from accused former government officials of the erstwhile APC administration of former president Ernest Bai Koroma. Accused of corruption and awaiting trials and possible jail sentences, the former government officials entered into plea agreements with the ACC to return portions of the public monies they stole or misappropriated in return for what amounts to clemency or leniency during their forthcoming trials, likely at the Special Court. As part of the national campaign against corruption launched by the SLPP administration of President Julius Maada Bio, the Government of Sierra Leone embarked on a parliamentary process to establish the Commission of Inquiry, which now has the legal mandate to investigate and perhaps refer for prosecution those that can be prosecuted based on evidence.
While most people have applauded the work of the ACC, others have been circumspect in their acclaim, arguing that leniency or clemency amounts to legitimizing the conducts of the accused and undercutting the fight against corruption. This criticism may appear valid on the surface, especially as the corruption-weary people of Sierra Leone continue to reel from the devastating impact of the wholesale institutionalized thievery that characterized the decade-long APC administration of Ernest Bai Koroma. People want to see those accused tried in a court of law and punished to serve as a deterrent against future incidents. And I submit that they are right to hold such views. However, in the context of the unprecedented nature of the current fight against corruption, it is important for the country and the international community to grasp the depth of the challenges that lie ahead.
In fairness to former president Ernest Bai Koroma, corruption in Sierra Leone did not start with his administration – he just happened to have elevated it to a science. Bogus government contracts awarded to APC elites that they never fulfilled; inflated costs of road projects that left the country, especially Freetown, with inferior and unsafe roads; procurement orders for government buses – buses that never left the parking garage after they were purchased; inflated defense contracts; rice importation contracts that were reportedly awarded, without bid, to friends and relatives of President Koroma; officials of government, who made less than six-figure salaries but built enormous compounds in excess of millions of dollars – all these point to a system wherein state actors evidently had a free rein to embezzle millions of dollars in public money with the tacit acquiescence of former President Ernest Bai Koroma himself! In a video that is circulated widely on social media, Mr. Koroma can be heard telling his supporters that he had cautioned them from stealing Ebola money because it was “blood money.” That assertion begs the question – What other public monies were they to steal? Perhaps the most egregious allegations of corruption allegedly committed by Mr. Koroma and his cronies surround their activities during the waning days of his administration. It is alleged that the APC administration took state-owned banks to the cleaners, taking whatever hard currencies they could lay their hands on. Then there were financial and material contributions from private citizens, businesses, foreign governments and institutions in the wake of the mudslides that killed thousands in Freetown. How those contributions were used to relocate and care for survivors and their families remains a mystery. It is also alleged that Mr. Koroma and a handful of his APC associates took delivery of nearly two hundred million dollars from the Chinese for the ill-fated Mamama Airport Project less than three months before the elections that removed them from power. And there was the Auditor General’s Report, conducted under President Koroma’s watch – it gave a scathing account of incompetence and deliberate failure of accountability by key government agencies. The Koroma administration did absolutely nothing to address the litany of malfeasance contained in the Auditor General’s Report. To investigate these, and other allegations of widespread corruption, and prosecute the culprits, require huge financial resources. More importantly, investigating and prosecuting corruption in Sierra Leone require a top-to-bottom reform of the justice system. It may require a constitutional amendment or, at the very least, a formulation and enforcement of a national code of ethics that will accord probity to the affairs of government.
There is no argument that, without exception, corruption has permeated every single institution in Sierra Leone. Years of institutionalized corruption have not only affected the development of the country, they have compromised the national psyche and the integrity of the entire country. If Sierra Leone is to combat corruption successfully, we must go back to the fundamentals – begin a deliberate, concerted and persistent education of the next generation – from class one through university – on the effects of corruption on the country. How we do that can be explained in a series of op-eds and a comprehensive national anti-corruption agenda. For now, though, let us consider how to address the allegations at hand.
The APC and its supporters are arguing that the Commission of Inquiry is a “witch hunt.” They are wrong! There was a Commission of Inquiry when President Ernest Bai Koroma became president. That Commission was appropriate then as it is now; it could have prosecuted officials of the previous SLPP administration of President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah if allegations of corruption were corroborated by evidence, and if President Koroma had taken the fight against corruption seriously.
To investigate, prosecute and punish those found to have engaged in stealing from the country, there must be a three-pronged approach. The Anti-Corruption Commission should be the mainstay of the fight. For the next two or three years, until there is a comprehensive judicial reform, the ACC should be the investigative branch that must remain active in unearthing public malfeasance and referring those accused to the Special Court for prosecution. The Special Court should then adjudicate the cases and exact fines and jail sentences where appropriate. The Special Court should have non-appellate jurisdiction, meaning that its verdict is final considering that even the current High Court of Sierra Leone may be tainted. To invalidate the APC argument that the fight against corruption is a witch hunt, judges of the Special Court should be men and women enlisted from outside Sierra Leone, preferably from the ECOWAS subregion. The judges will have no personal interest in the process or its outcome. They must be accommodated in protected living quarters with minimal interaction with current government officials and absolutely no contact with previous government officials except during court. The Special Court should have a limited term, two-three years, until the country’s judicial system is reformed. Lastly, the Commission of Inquiry should have limited duration. Like the post-war commission, this COI should look specifically into the Auditor General’s Report, the Government Transition Report, the handling of the Ebola outbreak, the management of contributions made in the wake of the mudslides, the doomed Mamama Airport Project and other egregious incidents of impropriety that have been reported.
The fight against corruption is a tough fight – tougher than the ten-year civil war that ravaged the country, the vestiges of which continue to linger. Unlike that war which affected every Sierra Leonean, including the perpetrators, the level of massive corruption that allegedly occurred under Ernest Bai Koroma was schemed and implemented by only a handful of people allied to President Koroma, not the entire APC. They have amassed enormous illegal wealth that they are using to create an alternate universe in Sierra Leone by trying to change public opinion on the need to investigate their crimes and hold them accountable. I am confident that despite the high level of illiteracy in the country, Sierra Leoneans are no fools – they know how corruption has negatively impacted their lives; they see how a handful of people are living extravagant lives at their expense; they support the fight against corruption, and they want to see accountability. Maada Bio and his administration must not fail them.
The country is at a momentous crossroad. The fight against corruption is not just about Ernest Bai Koroma and his cronies who looted the country with such reckless abandon; it is a fight for the soul of the country, and nobody should be spared, regardless of party, regional or tribal affiliation. The work of the ACC must go beyond recouping stolen monies, as laudable as that is under prevailing legal constraints. The ACC must be empowered with new laws and a reformed judiciary that serves as a functional complement to the ACC. Sierra Leone should seek to transform itself from a country ruled by kleptocrats to one that is governed by laws and men of integrity. The country and its people deserve better, the leaders should deliver nothing less.