By Our News Analyst
The three Commissions of Enquiry were established amidst stiff resistance from the All People’s Congress for obvious reasons.
Impunity was expected to continue to thrive as usual.
The opposition did not succeed and the Commissions have been ongoing.
In the history of Commissions of Enquiry there had been only one Commission at a time but this time round, there are three with specific schedules to fast track the process.
The surprising thing to the public however is that the trinity would now be sitting to deal with matters that government considers more important.
Their next tack was to hang seriously on Rules of Procedure which they were advocating for as the Commissions went on regardless.
The public were expecting Persons of Interest to appear in person but there was provision for them to be represented by counsel and as a result almost all of them were represented save Dr.Sylvia Blyden who chose to appear herself probably because of the confidence she had in her innocence.
The present accent on assets of lands, buildings, machinery, debenture, bank accounts, vehicles, sea transports, shares in companies, bearer bonds etc. shows that the enquiry has entered a new and crucial stage.
In the past, under the APC, Assets Declarations were regarded as a matter of formality and some top officials thought they were above the law.
The factor that made the requirement look like a formality was that even office messengers and cleaners who were earning far below a living wage were required to participate in the façade.
As at now some Persons of Interest are out of the country hoping that they could evade the law.
But the long arms of the law are likely to catch up with them with the aid of Interpol.
A side effect of these Commissions of Interest is that production in most government offices will be at a new low because the already lackadaisical public servants will add to their idle hours by listening to proceedings.
The SLBC can best save production by simply making a summary of proceedings as was done by the former SLBS with parliamentary proceedings.
But the competent Minister of Information and Communications thinks that the public good can best be served by distracting their attention from work for hours on end instead of getting his to do a more useful service by making précis of each day’s proceedings.
The fact seems to be that the APC recruited charlatans.
That sort of SLBC service is at best counterproductive and should be discontinued by a listening government.
Judging by present trends there is not likely to be much by way of deterrent results of the findings of the Commissions.
Many laws that were initiated with great fanfare now seem to have lapsed.
A cardinal example is that of the bike-riders who were banned from the Central Business District (CBD) of Freetown but have resumed their nuisance value.
If this syndrome continues there is not much hope of the implementation of the Commissions’ results. President Bio should not play cheap politics here.