By Umaru Fofana
It seems the more there is talk and effort about the fight against corruption, the cleverer – more stupid perhaps – become the thieves in public offices and their cohorts in the private sector. To the extent you have to wonder how much harder we need to ponder for the right solution. Is it through the simplistic way such as someone suggested to me recently – let the opposition suggest one of their own to be the head of the Anti Corruption Commission – or through a much deeper reflection to strengthen the Commission and give the staff the free hands both on paper and in reality.
Whatever we decide as a people, it is safe to say that there has been more of a cosmetic attempt at this fight. Without EITI compliance bribery seems to be the order of the day in the mining sector; and it seems to be being done with utter arrogance. Without a Freedom of Information Law many of us who want to help in the fight will remain hamstrung. Without the judiciary collaborating a lot more beginning with dealing with their own bar and bench, we are wasting time and pretending.
Corruption – local and central
Ministers hold executive positions in their political party and their functions are blurred at best or are clearly geared more towards party development than state achievement. Local councils are becoming more audacious in receiving backlogs and doing whatever they feel like doing with them. Very suspect contracts are awarded by councils some in collaboration with line central ministry or department. Public awareness-raising programmes are now being held for the 2014 budgets without proper account given for last year's expenditures. Whatever happened that made parliament suddenly quieten over the use – or perhaps misuse – of last year’s funds by the Road Maintenance Fund.
People are appointed into public offices today and in a few months own houses or are building them. It tells you why the clamour and hate for appointment to public positions – not for service to country but personal aggrandisement. Many of whom we knew just a few years ago were living on bank drafts now have bank accounts far exceeding their salary. We know ministers are paid US$ 2,000 monthly with an additional US$ 1,000 for housing. Some have been seconded by the university to the government of Sierra Leone and are living in college quarters yet they collect their accommodation allowance and do not give up their accommodation or give to the college authorities their housing allowances. Whatever happened to “unexplained wealth” and “illicit enrichment” which are corruption offences under the Anti-Corruption Act as amended in 2008! It seems people are eating with both hands; and for every step we take forwards in the fight against graft there are several taken backwards.
Impact
Public institutions are compromised. Infrastructure is broken. Where it is fixed it is done shoddily because those who awarded the contracts asked for their take or kickbacks. Society is cowed or vilified into subservience. We are almost all corrupt – either because we are so or because we allow our leaders to continue being so, unchallenged. People are appointed to serve in positions of trust but soon they thrust that trust into the gutter and serve themselves. Where there is any semblance of service to the people it is just a fig leaf as it gets mired into partisan politics or kleptomania or both.
The success of these public officials, sadly, is measured by what material things they acquire, most times fraudulently. Effectively our leaders eat with both their hands and they drop the crumps which the masses see and jump at and laud. They do so either because of ignorance, complicity or a sense of belonging to the same ethnicity which is the hallmark of Sierra Leonean politics. How unfortunate!
Attack dogs
The leaders and their cronies continue to wallow in ill-gotten state wealth. Their attack dogs attempt to chase those who stand up to their wrongdoings. These attacks are sometimes aimed the Anti-Corruption Commission itself, the very institution set up to fight graft in especially public office. They attack the ACC not because the commission has taken the wrong lane, which it sometimes does, but because of some parochial interests determined by … yes…some bribe.
I am sure everybody in this country does know what corruption is. As for its implications, we all know what they are, as Sierra Leoneans, otherwise we would not be where we are today. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development says corruption in the public sector “hampers the efficiency of public services, undermines confidence in public institutions and increases the cost of public transactions”. It recommends that “Integrity is essential for building strong institutions resistant to corruption”, adding that “Ensuring that the integrity of government decision-making is not compromised by public officials’ private interests is a growing public concern.” This is the bedrock if Sierra Leone’s Agenda for Prosperity is to succeed especially so because it largely depends on the private sector.
Agenda for Prosperity
The Agenda for Prosperity talks about strengthening the accountability regime within the overall governance structure and deepening the recovery of Government resources, and “above all…to maintain…zero tolerance to corruption”. Great that it recognises that the fight against official corruption is the most important. But how much about that is talked about the AfP and how much attention is given to make that effective are questions begging for answers.
I make bold to say that unless the fight against corruption is pursued more vigorously, more seriously and more sincerely – without hypocrisy, without ambivalence, without selection – the Agenda for Prosperity will be an agenda for the prosperity for only those in authority or those connected to them in one way or another.
Corruption, research has shown, is a phenomenon that is found anywhere in the world. Bribery, stealing, conflict of interest and abuse of power are but only some aspects of a corrupt act. Bribery – soliciting it or accepting it – is perhaps the most noticeable and most common of all forms of corruption. But the difference in its pursuit and defeat lies in the ability and the willingness of individuals in a society to resist corruption, institutions – both public and private – to fight corruption, and the genuine political will at the topmost to support the fight. That is how this beast is defeated. Not through some lip service by people who say one thing but yet they business interests receive government contracts or patronage. It is called hypocrisy.
Yes I know it might sound easy, perhaps even simplistic, if I stood here and said that the solution to this menace lay in public officials doing what is right, for the public to resist what is wrong when asked to give a bribe, and for the institutions set up to deal with corruption to do so without fear or favour. But as I say that may be deemed too simplistic. But I insist there is where the solution lies.
Insincerity
Ours is a society in which, when a corrupt rival or enemy is being prosecuted for corruption we celebrate. We convict them even before the courts do. In fact we even prefer persecution for them. But when a corrupt friend or ally or relative is being investigated or even is on trial we castigate the prosecutors. We even wish the prosecutors – not the corrupt – were persecuted. Sometimes we do so unashamedly. How many of us did not see the crowds that turned out carrying the former mayor Herbert George-Williams on their heads after his sentencing. Anybody would have misunderstood that jamboree to mean an acquittal. Unfortunately, it is sometimes sections of the media which sow this seed of patronage by attempting to undermine and even prejudice cases in court.
Procurement
Procurement is believed to be the most fertile area of corruption especially in Sierra Leone. Contracts are awarded undeservedly, implemented shoddily, and sometimes abandoned brazenly. Bad as procurement breaches are, they are relatively easy to conclusively prosecute. It only requires consistency. When Mr A breaches procurement rules and he is brought to court, Mrs B must also so be is she does the same. But we sometimes dither on that front. Otherwise why were some senior staff at the road transport authority charged for importing second hand trucks and were convicted – albeit they were acquitted on appeal – while the more exonerating option of an out-of-court settlement was preferred in the case of senior official at NASSIT for doing the same thing – in fact worse – with some scraps called ferries. Today they hold some of the most sensitive positions in the country.
That said, the beast that is far more difficult to handle let alone defeat is bribery. According to Zero Currency, an organisation dedicated to the fight against bribery, an estimated US$ 5 Billion exchanges hands every year in bribe. If every one of us stops giving or taking a bribe this afternoon, we can stop corruption before nightfall.
Addressing a cross section of his government recently, President Ernest Bai Koroma had this to say:
“By the time of the next elections, we would have had several more mining companies operating in the country; and, there will be several oil wells pumping oil here. The question will then not be not having enough money for development, but, how to judiciously use the huge sums of money that would accrue into government’s coffers”.
This optimistic upbeat statement by our president is well and good. After all a leader must always instil hope and confidence in his people. But our president needs telling, perhaps reminding, that even if all the oilfields in the world were to open in Sierra Leone, even if all the iron ore deposits in the world were to surface in our beloved country, even if all the gas needed for all the planes in the world were to spurt in our nation, it would epitomise more poverty, represent more misery and typify more deprivation if these resources were not harnessed properly, and if our leaders said one thing in public and did another in private.
Natural resource corruption
From awarding contracts for exploration, granting licences for exploitation, to recruitment of workers, and collecting and accounting for the revenue, the masses and not the leaders should be at the fore. Any spec of corruption in this regard will torpedo any modicum of hope for development. It sometimes leads me into praying for God to hold on to the much-talked-about oil until comes a leadership generation that is serious in the fight against corruption.
All the pillars of the Agenda for Prosperity will become clay blocks if an anti-corruption element is not entrenched in all of them and enforced with seriousness. Once they become clay blocks, of course we all know the ramifications thereof: they will collapse. And when they do they will cause more casualties because they will collapse on us and wreak more havoc.
One of those pillars is the management of our Natural Resources. This is key! It is key for many reasons but fundamentally because it is the harbinger of all our prosperity dreams. At present we are investigating a story of a company that was issued a licence to mine in Tonkolili district and an agreement duly signed. How that licence got cancelled and a company that had earlier been told to vacate the concession area because it was mining there illegally came to take over, is one of the biggest puzzlements of our time. And I dare say this is just one of perhaps dozens of such murky contracts in our extractives sector. We have a mines minister who has no clue what his ministry should really be doing. A minister whose track record at his previous labour ministry was so suspect that you wonder why he was promoted. We cannot be prosperous if the president has reasons to appoint people into positions other than their ability to serve in that capacity and a good track record. You can see Pillar Two of the AfP is dead in the waters if things remain the way they are.
Warning
There will be no social protection as spelled out under Pillar 6 if corruption is allowed to thrive. This leaves us with one key thing: to make the ACC work effectively and to never allow it to die. We find ourselves in a society where institutions are sometimes set up just to be dismantled by a successive regime. The ACC is no doubt protected by law. But it should be taken one step further. The ongoing constitutional review process should have the establishment of the ACC as an entrenched clause in our country’s constitution so that no government comes in the future and decides to dismantle it or subsumes it into some phony arrangement because it sees it as an imposition by Clair Short who came to Freetown and was incensed by what corruption had caused this country.
Reforms
The ACC should be expanded especially in scope. As it is, the ACC Act as amended in 2008 is one of the best pieces of legislation on corruption anywhere in the world. Its corruption offenses are almost exhaustive. Its prosecutorial powers are far-reaching. But the power in the hands of the Attorney General to nullify prosecution is a death trap. We can only imagine what happens when the holder of that position is himself the subject of an indictment, or the person who appointed him – the president – is. The Damocles that is the nulli prosequi will be brought down.
The scope of the ACC could be considered for expansion so we have a Commissioner and an Assistant Commissioner in each of the departments who are recruited on a competitive basis and not at the say-so only of a sitting president. It can then be expanded in size and funded very well and more sufficiently by government and donor partners. And the donors are key in this. An ACC that bites the high and mighty in government or even in parliament may find it difficult to get its budget approved by the House.
Parliament
Parliament should play a lot more helpful role in the fight against graft. There is a groundswell out there – rightly or wrongly – that some MPs are themselves engaged in one form of corrupt practice or another. The allegations are innumerable and they border on how mining agreements are endorsed and how pieces of legislation are passed. If we get Parliament right in this fight, we have won the fight. In part for obvious reasons of their oversight powers, but also because not taking up their rightful role and getting bogged down in petty party bigotry has meant that the executive has abrogated itself far more powers than it really commands. Consequently the oversight role of parliament has been relegated to mainly repeat of what we already know or dithering on what we know not.
Judiciary
And the judiciary too. I know it is their prerogative but I cannot help but ask why no judge in recent times has seen the need to hand down a mandatory custodial sentence against a convicted corrupt official. If this is coincidence, what a coincidental coincidence. Or perhaps an amendment of the ACC Act itself to mandate a mandatory custodial sentence in certain corruption cases amounting to a certain amount of money should be considered.
Religious leaders
Sierra Leone is a largely religious country. Or at least its people believe in God and go to church or mosque. This puts our religious leaders in a very important and strategic position in the fight against corruption. But sadly, not many of them, if any, would demand to know the source of money donated to them or their house of worship. In fact they will praise such donors and entreat all to do likewise. I wonder how many of them preach about bribery and corruption when it is not on International Corruption Day in the second week of December every year and the ACC are in their church or mosque marking the day.
Our imams and pastors should rise up to the occasion and preach to the masses and the leaders about the ills of bribery and corruption and the need to curb if not end it.
Assets declaration
I understand the rationale behind the confidentiality of the assets declaration by public officials. But I also know that there is a difference between confidentiality and secrecy. The earlier this is revisited so the public knows the declared assets and can help identify the undeclared ones, the better.
Prevention, they say, is better than cure. I know that the ACC has been taking tremendous strides through its Integrity Clubs and town hall meetings raising awareness around corruption. But a lot more of this needs to be done especially targeting the next generation of citizens because many of the current crop have been lost to bribery and corruption without salvation.
Millennium Challenge Corporation
One of the biggest prospects for our country’s prosperity promise is accessing funding through the Millennium Challenge Corporation from the United States. It has to be borne in mind that qualification for this is not a final year exam at the university which, once you pass, you have your certificate. This is akin to passing your entrance exam. You will be assessed every year for promotion or repeat of expulsion. And the key benchmark under the Millennium Challenge Corporation is the fight against corruption. It would be more than disgraceful if we were to be kicked out of this because we reneged in the fight against official graft the same way we bungled the EITI compliance.
Conditions of service
While I believe that low wages could contribute to corruption, I am not convinced that a high pay necessarily stops a corruptible person from being corrupted and corrupt. But whatever the truth, the pay and conditions of most workers in this country are as pathetic as they are scandalous, and therefore need reviewing. Once that is done they lose sympathy if they are proved to be corrupt. This is why ministers do not attract as much genuine sympathy when they are charged for corruption as would, say, a primary or secondary school teacher. Except perhaps from those who benefited from such a minister’s corrupt practice.
Corruption scandals are not scarce. They are pervasive and have underscored a deep sense of depravity which we must all join hands with – and even challenge – the ACC to stamp out. Otherwise the collective guilt that perhaps all of us share will become our collective amnesia to the fact that we are where we are as a nation because of deep-seated high-level corruption. And like President Koroma told me in an interview marking our country’s 50th independence anniversary two years ago, we will not only blame the leadership, we must also blame the followership when things go wrong. And because we do not want to be blamed as a part of that followership, this is why we’re warning sincerely and honestly. Otherwise the dream of uplifting 80% of Sierra Leoneans from above the poverty line in the next 20 years as espoused by the Agenda for Prosperity will remain a pipe dream.
NOTE: This is an adaptation from a paper presented at a one-day symposium organised by the Anti-Corruption Commission on 12 September on the topic “Bribery in Sierra Leone: Causes, Effects, Solutions and Implications for the Agenda for Prosperity”.
(C) Politico 19/08/13
