By Kemo Cham
Sierra Leone`s anti graft agency appears to have taken this year`s report on the prevalence of bribery in the country in good fate. The Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) has said in a statement that the report`s findings provided an opportunity for the country to review its approach to the fight against corruption.
“Invariably, this report gives Sierra Leoneans the opportunity to reset the country’s resolve to achieving zero tolerance for corruption, and accordingly, the Anti-Corruption Commission, solicits public support,” the ACC said in a statement late on Thursday.
It recommitted its resolve to deal with bribery “in all facets of public life.”
Transparency International (TI), last Tuesday, released its Global Corruption Barometer Report which ranked Sierra Leone among the top four countries considered the most corrupt in Africa. The report, titled, “People and Corruption: African Survey 2015,” surveyed 43,143 respondents in 28 countries across Sub-Saharan Africa, revealing that majority of Africans believe corruption had risen in the past 12 months on the continent.
It crucially found that most African governments were seen as failing in their duty to stop the abuse of power, bribery and secret deals.
Sierra Leone was ranked behind South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana.
In all 28 countries surveyed, the police, business executives, government officials and the courts were all perceived as corrupt. It said the police and courts had the highest corruption rates, with the former often paid to "ignore any crime, however horrific and devastating."
While some people pay bribes to escape punishment for crimes, others were forced to pay to get access to the basic services that they desperately needed, the TI report said.
In Sierra Leone and Liberia it cited recent happenings around the management of Ebola funds which were the subject of investigation in Sierra Leone.
"In both of these countries there are very high bribery rates and the public sector is perceived to be affected by extensive levels of corruption," the report notes.
69 per cent of Sierra Leoneans, it notes, distrusted the government in its fight against graft. This compares against 19 per cent which praised the government`s effort.
41 percent of respondents admitted to have paid a bribe within the past year in Sierra Leone.
However, the (re)verse, noted the ACC, seems to suggest that 59 percent of respondents did not admit to have paid a bribe for the same period.
The anti grant agency also cited the previous Global Corruption Barometer Report of 2013 which reported that 84 percent of respondents admitted to have paid a bribe in the country, and said this suggested a 53 percent reduction in the rate of bribery.
“Although the report points to the fact that government is not doing very well in fighting corruption, the spirit of this report vindicates the call the Anti-Corruption Commission has continuously being making that corruption in Africa, and Sierra Leone in particular, is a serious cause for concern,” said the statement.
Denial
Earlier on Thursday government spokesman Theo Nicol dismissed the TI report as mere opinion.
Nicol, the Deputy Minister of Information and Communication, said beside the report being based on perception and opinion, it hardly represented the reality on the ground given what the government had done in terms of discouraging corruption.
It followed calls for the government to own up to the report and act to reduce if not end corruption.
"The problem we have is that we do not want to embrace the root
causes of our problem," Andrew Lavally, Executive Director of
the Institute of Governance Reform, told Radio democracy. He said the TI report did not come as a surprise and blamed the government`s reluctance to accept it as part of the main problem.
Opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party Secretary General Sulayman Banja Tejan-Sie told the same medium that the findings that the country was corrupt were “no secret."
But Theo Nicol said the government was unmatched as far as fighting graft was concerned. Under President Ernest Bai Koroma the government had recovered more money than in any other previous government, he said.
“If they say corruption is increasing, we are saying we have done far more than any other government in this country,” he stated.
In 2013 the Sierra Leone government reacted angrily to a similar report which placed the country at the top of the table back then.
Unfortunately for the authorities, this latest report came amidst persistent media probe on an alleged conflict of interest involving Information Minister Alpha Kanu, a close ally of the President. He is alleged to have received millions of US Dollars worth of tickets bought for official travels through a privately owned airline linked to him.
And it added: “The people of Africa have spoken, that the time is now for the disease of corruption to be tackled headlong by governments, institutions and we the people ourselves.”
(C) Politico Online 03/12/15
