By Allieu S. Tunkara
Several studies have indicated that Poor Salaries and beggarly wages constitute a recipe for corruption on petty and grand scales.
One such study is the one commissioned by the European Union in 2005 titled: ‘Policing Agencies in Sierra Leone.’
The report says it will be difficult for the police to resist bribe in the face miserable salaries.
The study was specifically conducted on the existence of several organisations that exercise police power in Sierra Leone and the need to integrate them in mainstream policing.
However, the report also focused attention to the absence of effective and efficient police service in the country, a factor it attributed to poor salaries.
The country’s anti-graft agency, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is always defensive of government payment of poor salaries to its workers.
ACC says always says: “a poor salary is not a cause for corruption in the public sector.”
However, ACC has failed to defend the reason the ACC Commissioner is paid close to Le50, 000,000 (fifty million Leones) a month.
The EU-sponsored report indicates that a police officer in the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) was paid Just Le750, 000 equivalent to approximately US$70 and a bag of rice per month.
Although salaries paid to the police in 2005 have seen slight increase, situation for the police remains worse in the face of a spiralling inflationary trend.
Imagine the situation of a police officer who has a wife and three children to cater for in Freetown or elsewhere with such salaries.
Other class of workers including the police, the health workers and the army fall into this category.
The 2005 report further indicates that it would be extremely difficult for the SLP to find well-educated police officers willing to efficiently and effectively deliver security services with such take-home package that cannot take them home.
By the content of the report, it is safe to say Sierra Leone is one of many countries in Africa that still grapples with the problem of low salaries for public sector workers.
The much-trumpeted salary harmonisation program is yet to yield result.
The report recommends to government to improve the salary situation for the police if they are to perform well.
Sierra Leone was at the height of post- policing when the report came out.
Recommendation for improved salaries resonated with the one made an inter-governmental body of Britain and former British colonies, Commonwealth.
It made the recommendation at a time the SLP was undergoing the Commonwealth Community Safety and Security (CCSSP) project.
The CCSSP team was of the firm conviction that no matter the reform process the SLP went through; it can never be free from corruption if sufficient salaries are not paid to police officers.
At that time, the Commonwealth recommended for a salary of at least US$100 for the least police officer and lucrative take home for senior police officers.
It was a lump sum at that time, and signs were clear that they would pay for a period of five years before government takes responsibility.
Government was not disposed to push for such salary arrangement as they saw it as a financial burden that would hunt them for years to come.
Although the Police Council was chaired by the Vice President, the CCCSSP move died in the waters and the SLP continued with the syndrome of poor salary.
Some police officers posted in areas that seem lucrative were not moved to present a strong case for salary enhancement.
They slumbered in the well of complacency with complete cluelessness that Sierra Leone would evolve to a situation of zero-tolerance on corruption.
Today, the state is there as the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is here.
The country’s anti-graft agency is pressing hard on public sector agencies including the police to refrain from all aspects of corruption, even a gift of Le1, 000 which cannot purchase a cup of rice.
The ACC law criminalises and demonises the actions of all those who choose the path of corruption to be their success.
Public education, Prevention and prosecution commonly known as the three ‘P’s’ was a renowned ACC strategy to curb corruption in a country where it has been celebrated for years.
Since its formation in 2000 by the Anti-Corruption Act, the ACC has been pursuing strategies and actions to stop corruption.
One notable strategy was the Pay-No-Bribe (PNB) campaign which was taken to almost every part of the country.
Public and civil servants were briefed about the dangers of corruption on society and that deviants will definitely incur the wrath of the law.
In all their public education sessions with public sector workers, the ACC will stoutly defend claims that poor salaries breed corruption.
The anti-corruption campaigners always say public servants are free to resign if they think salaries are poor.
They say their mandate is to investigate corruption, and not to recommend payment of good salaries to workers.
The ACC is quite aware that police officers will hardly resign from their work considering the unemployment rate in the country.
The police officers have no option but to put up with the miserable situation of delivering security service in a hostile environment with poor salaries.
But, they will not hesitate to seek alternative means to supplement their income to meet home needs.
Those alternative routes are routes that are not permitted by the state.
Petty corruption in the police force was exposed when three police officers were arrested by ACC at a traffic checkpoint in Tinkokor village in Bo district.
The officers were detained for several days before they were released on bail.
The ACC investigations led to the dismissal from the force some police officers who ACC said bore a hand in the loot.
The crackdown still continues as the ACC has set up a special team known as the ‘Scorpion Squad’ to deal with incidents of petty corruption.
Poor salaries with no form of corruption present a very dangerous situation in which the SLP has been trapped.
Sierra Leone is among 140 countries that were signatories to the United Nations Convention against Corruption.
Owing to its signatory status, it owes legal obligation to ratify and domesticate anti-corruption laws in the country.
The enactment, by Sierra Leone, of the Anti-Corruption Act of 2000 is testimony of the realisation of the corruption convention.
However, the enactment of the law on corruption alone does not constitute an effective blow to corruption.
Sierra Leone has to open up to checks and studies by the corruption watchdog, Transparency International.
The TI has been studying and publishing reports on incidents of corruption in Sierra Leone its Corruption Perception Index (CPI) model.
The CPI which is TI’s flagship research product has become the leading global indicator of public sector corruption.
The index offers an annual snapshot of the relative degree of corruption by ranking countries from all over the world.
TI revised its methodology used to construct the index to allow for comparison of scores among countries annually.
Since its first move in 2013, the global corruption watchdog has surveyed the experiences of people facing corruption around the world.
Through its corruption barometres, tens of thousands of people around the world are asked about their views, opinions, perceptions and experiences about corruption in their countries.
The TI reports, to a large extent, do not favour Sierra Leone for years.
In 2013, TI indicted Sierra Leone as a country where every public sector worker collected a bribe to do a job for which he is paid by the state.
The indictment compelled the country to come up with a PNB strategy to nip petty corruption in the bud, but proves less successful owing poor salaries.
Until government makes effort to match salaries with the country’s harsh cost of living, the fight against corruption will be a hard nut to crack.