By Kemo Cham
Sierra Leone’s amended Anti-Corruption Act of 2019 has come into effect after President Julius Maada Bio appended his signature to it, according to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
The Commission, in a statement on Wednesday, said President Bio signed the document on Tuesday December 3rd.
Among other things, the amended law toughens the punishment for corruption offenders, by notably increasing the minimum punishment for major corruption offences to a minimum of five years in jail or a fine of not less than Le50million. Before now the minimum fine was Le30million and the minimum jail term was three years.
The new law also strengthens protection of those who assist the Commission - witnesses, informants and whistle blowers; it allows the Commission to either prosecute corrupt public officers or recover from them all monies they misappropriate, with a minimum of 10% interest levied on the total sum, as well as a mandatory exclusion from holding public office for not less than 3 years.
This amended law also empowers the ACC to proceed with trial of accused persons and convict them in absentia, it shifts the evidential burden for offences involving offering or receiving an advantage (bribery), and it allows the Commission to appeal against sentences that are deemed lenient or disproportionate to the offence charged.
With the new law, the scope of corruption with respect to Offering and Soliciting an Advantage has been widened to include accepting, obtaining or receiving an advantage.
One of the most important amendment in the law is on asset declaration. Now public office holders have only three months to declare their asset upon leaving office, down from the one year time frame initially allowed. Even more importantly with the asset declaration law, the categories of public officers who are required to declare their assets have been streamlined, limiting it to a smaller category of people, among them persons in elective offices, persons appointed by the President, public officers in grade 7 and above, and public officers below grade 7 who handle or control public cash or goods, make official decisions or recommendations relating to the granting or denial of licenses in regulatory sectors, conduct research or prepare analytic reports for higher level officials who make critical decisions on financial, economic or regulatory policies; or those who are in regulatory agencies responsible for regulatory compliance, monitoring and inspection. The Commissioner of the ACC is also empowered to specify categories of Public Officers outside this list as they deem it appropriate.
While before now officials only had their names published in the national gazette as punishment for failing to declare their asset, with the amended law there is a provision for administrative sanctions for Public Officers who fail to submit their Asset Declaration Forms within the prescribed period, and these include withholding salaries, suspension from public service and removal from public service altogether.
Crucially, the Commissioner is now empowered to stop contracts where they have reason to believe that it is not in the national interest.
A lot of corruption has been found to occur in contract negotiations and executions.
The ACC also now has clearly stated powers to investigate examination malpractices with punishment including five years imprisonment for those found guilty of involvement either in aiding, abetting or procuring it, among other actions.
The ACC, in its statement announcing Tuesday’s development, thanked President Bio and the House of parliament for “courageously promulgating and enacting these far-reaching and very progressive reforms that will certainly revolutionize the national campaign against corruption in the country.”
It added that the amended piece of legislation would “consolidate and expand the gains made so far by making corruption a high risk and low return venture, and making corruption control legal and regulatory framework more robust.”
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