By Mustapha Sesay
The circuit superintendent of the Ebenezer Methodist Church, Wilberforce branch says "instilling moral values in school-going children" and embarking on civic education will reduce the act of bribery and corruption in Sierra Leone.
Rev. Arnold Archer Campbell made this comment at a symposium organised by the Anti-Corruption Commission at the Miata Conference Centre in Freetown with the object of discussing ways to reducing bribery in the country.
The Anti Corruption Commissioner, Joseph Kamara said every public institution was possibly corrupt, adding: “it is difficult to teach old dog new tricks.” He said that the “code of silence” in which people were not willing to talk about corrupt individuals had hampered the commission’s fight against corruption. He however, expressed the ACC's commitment to fighting corruption and called on every Sierra Leonean to join the ACC.
Editor of Politico Newspaper, Umaru Fofana said that the genuine will of the government was needed for corruption to be eliminated, adding that the natural resources would not benefit the common man if they were not properly harnessed by those in authority. He asked for the secrecy associated with asset declaration to be removed in order to enable the citizen to identify unaccounted wealth of corrupt officials. Fofana wondered how the Agenda for Prosperity would succeed if there was rampant and unchecked corruption in government and expressed concern that the new found oil, if of commercial quantity, would mean more misery for the people amid graft among public officials.
A lecturer at the Mass Communication department at Fourah Bay College, Francis Sowa said bribery was thriving largely because “people are willing to bribe for things they should not pay for”. He added that those involved in corruption were honoured in the society while those who tried to avoid it are seen as “not serious.” He challenged the notion that bribery was a cultural thing, stressing that it was a long-thriving bad habit that had assumed the “false sense” of a culture.
Assistant Superintendence of Police, Ambrose Michael Sovula and head of traffic noted that the fight against bribery should not only focus on the “takers of bribe" but also on the “givers". He said that most of the time his men were caught between precarious situations of either accepting a bribe and being able to survive for the day or refusing it and staying broke for that day because their salaries are meagre.
(C) Politico 19/08/13
