By Francis H. Murray
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) Southern Region office has engaged personnel of the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) in Moyamba and Mattru Jong police stations on the content of the recently released Corruption Perception Survey conducted by the Centre for Accountability and Rule of Law, with sponsorship from DFID.
During the two-day engagement, which ended on Thursday 25th June 2020, the ACC Regional Manager South, Musa Jawara, lauded the SLP for their national support in the containment of the Covid-19 pandemic and the maintenance of the country’s security. He noted that an insecure state could not attract foreign investment, emphasizing that a transparent and accountable police force can rapidly foster economic and social development.
Jawara alluded to a recent sting operation conducted by the ACC in which a military officer was arrested for receiving a bribe at the Mile 6 - Mangay Covid-19 checkpoint, noting that that acts of bribery and extortion by the police were singled out in the Corruption Perception Survey.
The ACC regional head said that “such irresponsible act has the tendency of spreading the pandemic far and wide,” and therefore admonished the officers to reengineer their efforts against bribery and show zero tolerance for any act of corruption.
The ACC Southern Region Prosecutor, Abubakarr Sannoh Esq, cautioned officers about the stiff penalties in the Anti-Corruption Act 2008 as amended in 2019, and therefore urged them to take the onus to fight corruption as well as build the image of the force as “a force for good”.
He noted that “it is far better for all public officials to be at State House receiving honours from the President, rather than answering questions before the High Court.”
Local Unit Commanders of the Moyamba and Matru Jong police stations, CSP Chruschev Kargbo and CSP Samuel Kargbo commended the Commission for a laudable effort to educate them on the dangers of corruption and corrupt practices. They admonished their officers to work assiduously in promoting the image of the force in their areas of operation.
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