Sierra Leone’s graft agency, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC)’s credibility is at the greatest test since it pays more attention on the reports of the three defunct Commissions of Inquiry at the expense of Afro-Barometre and the Centre for Accountability and Rule of Law (CARL) corruption reports.
The commission seems determined more than ever to investigate officials of the former government including ex-President Ernest Bai Koroma should evidence be adduced against him. In his speech on the launching of the White Paper, President Julius Maada Bio assured the country that the White Paper would be enforced to the fullest.
No sacred cow exists, and it is towards this direction that the President set aside some officials of government including Denis Vandy, the former Minister of Agriculture. The presidential declarations, no doubt, have set the ACC into motion to go after corrupt officials of the former government.
But, the public continue to pose questions as to why ACC has not investigated corruption allegations made against the Sierra Leone Police, Parliament and Office of the President. The unanswered questions is where ACC’s murky game starts as allegations are fit objects of investigations for the public to know what went wrong in the business of state governance.
But, evidence is clear that institutions implicated in the reports are yet to be invited for questioning by the ACC despite assurances by the ACC Chief that he would no longer neglect such reports. The Forensic Audit Report, 2019 has also come out with strong accusations of corruption in public institutions.
ACC Officials have always said their institution would investigate with the aim of bringing the suspected officials to book. None of the press releases put out by the ACC has shown that an official has been investigated or suspended in respect of the audit reports.
Publications from credible media institutions have also come out against state institutions about money stashed from state coffers. The Timber industry has recently come under the spotlight as an agency where government has lost substantial sums of money. The agency remains immune as no officials has been roped in.
Stashing away of huge sums of money is said to have been facilitated by the state for creating a permanent monopoly and hegemony in the timber industry. Reports which have also accused government institutions of corruption on grand scale were those released by a consortium of Civil Society Organisations (CSO’s) and the Afro-Barometer Report.
The consortium of CSO’s, Centre for Accountability and Rule of Law, Christian Aid and Restless Development were the first to accuse Sierra Leone Police and parliament as the most corrupt agencies in Sierra Leone. The allegations prompted a public backlash against the said institutions, and called on the ACC to investigate.
The ACC is yet to accordingly respond to issues raised in the reports, and officials of the police and parliament have been very defensive.
A spokesman in the police media unit says he relies on other reports that have praised the police as a good institution. The defence from parliament is the most potent as the Speaker of Parliament; Dr Abass Bundu likened it to treason.
The Speaker also similarly challenged the sample of respondents used by the researchers to arrive at such conclusion. Dr Abass Bundu told pressmen that the surveys engaged just 2, 619 persons in the case of CARL and only 1,200 persons in the case of Institute of Governance Reform.
It was the opinion of the speaker that the sample used is too small to produce a reliable result. The ACC seems to have been hoodwinked into the defences, and override the country’s legislations by not inviting any official of the indicted agencies. By the time parliament and the police could reel of the effects of the CSO’s allegations, the Afro-Barometre report had been put out accusing again the two institutions of corruption.
The report also accused Office of the President as a bastion of corruption, but no action has been taken by the ACC. By its inaction, the country’s graft agency seems to have deviated from the New Direction’s path of eradicating corruption in Sierra Leone.
ACC’s campaign of a fair but fierce strike on corruption is losing momentum. The other side of the argument holds that the ACC almost always flexes its muscles when it comes to the investigation of past government officials.
Sierra Leone has witnessed the arrest and detention of former Commissioner-General of the National Revenue Authority, Haja Kallah Kamara, former Minister of Defence as well as Internal Affairs, Alfred Paolo Conteh on corruption allegations.
The indictment of former Vice President, Victor Bockarie Foh and other ministers for corruption allegations are great testimonies of ACC coming down hard on the opposition.
In what appears a break with the past, President Koroma is being hunted for corruption allegations ranging from unexplained wealth to money laundering. If the allegations are sustained, former President Koroma would go down in history as the first former President to be humbled in a court of play for corruption allegations.
ACC’s insistence on getting the former President interviewed in respect of widely trumpeted corruption allegations is a glowing signal that the ACC means business.
The time-honoured adage, coming events cast their shadows should not be overlooked. Apart from the chase of former government officials for corruption, the ACC is now busy scratching its head to investigate a number of corruption issues raised by the defunct Commissions of Inquiry.
A summary of a plethora of corruption allegations is contained in a ‘White Paper’ handed over to President Julius Maada Bio by the three judges in September, this year.
The three commissions of Inquiry have a common aim and that aim is to look into assets and other related matters in respect of persons who were President, Vice Presidents, Ministers and Heads and Chairmen of Boards of Parastatals, Departments and Agencies within the period from November 2007 to April, 2018.
The Nigerian Judge, Biobele Georgewill looked into the activities of several government ministries and agencies but with a particular focus on and interest in the management and disposal of Ebola funds.
In the Ebola investigation, the former Minister of Health and Sanitation, Miatta Kargbo and others were found wanton. Granting of unsecured loans to politically exposed persons by the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank was a also a matter of utmost concern and importance by the Biobele commission
Some SLCB senior officials have been held accountable for granting such unsecure loans that nearly wrecked the institution. Other issues were also treated as matters of significance by the Biobele commission especially the Youths-In-Drainage, Youths-In-Fisheries, National Youth Farm, National Youth Village projects.
Two former ministers in the Ministry of youths, Hon. Alimamy Kamara and Bai Mahmoud Bangura under whose supervision the said projects were implemented have been indicted by the White Paper.
The activities of Ministry of Mines and Mineral Resources (MMA) were also looked into by the commission and two former ministers, Minkailu Mansaray and Dr Samura Kamara, former APC flag-bearer have been found culpable.
Other Key stakeholders in the Mines and Minerals sector including former Director-General of National Minerals Agency (NMA) Sahr Wonday, and Managing Director of the Country’s Rutile miner, John Bonoh Sisay and their collaborators have been held suspects.
The commission’s reports referred to the MMA and NMA as some of the cash-cows of unbridled and mindless corruption. The Biobele commission further noted that in 2012, Sierra Leone’s shares in the Sierra Rutile Company were secretly sold for USD12, 000, 000.00 without authority during Dr Samura Kamara’s tenure.
In respect of the said allegations, Government has ordered a refund of the allegedly stolen sum or ACC bring criminal charges against defaulters.
The ACC is ready, and investigations have commenced, but no effective investigations have begun on the Afro-Barometre, CARL and Forensic Audit Report.
To be continued in subsequent editions