By Umaru Fofana
Every progress-loving Sierra Leonean must be reeling at the failure of the country to benefit from the lucrative and prestigious US Government-funded Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). Not only did the country not make it through to benefit from the hundreds of millions of US dollars that would have tremendously helped in turning around the lives of many Sierra Leoneans, it was not even selected for consideration for next year.
Invariably, anyone who loves this country will be mad at the government for the reason for this rejection - corruption. Simply put, the Government failed to impress the MCC Board, like it would have any other serious and independent observer, that it meant business in the fight against graft which has seen some people become the nouveaux-riches through corrupt means. Everyone knows that the government's commitment to the fight against corruption is more of a lip service and hypocrisy than a sincere and well-meaning enterprise. Agreed we have a tough Anti-Corruption Act as amended in 2008. But that alone does not fight the menace. And we all know where the problem lies.
It is a slap in the face for President Ernest Bai Koroma and may just have dented his chances of selection between 2018 and 2021 for another prestigious award - the Mo Ibrahim Leadership Award - which also lays a lot of emphasis on governance, human rights and the fight against corruption. And I reckon that should President Koroma have another opportunity to meet US president Barack Obama he may pull him by the ear - figuratively speaking - for this poor performance. This is because even though the detail of the meeting between the two men was not given to us, it is safe to assume that the benchmarks for the attainment of the MCC Compact were discussed especially in the areas of governance, rights and corruption.
Impeccable State House sources say President Koroma is livid over the country's failure to attain the MCC Compact status. He has to be. So much so that he has threatened to dismantle the MCC Team. He has to do. But he also has to look beyond the convenience and self-massaging dismantling of the MCC Secretariat. Did he not know that he was doing something murky when his would-be sister-in-law and daughter of his close friend was recruited to work there? Did he not know that he was doing the wrong thing when he appointed someone to work there who had been proved to be corrupt in all but name and was paying back Le 500 million as settlement? Did he not know that he had put someone in charge of the whole project who had left the West African civil society under questionable circumstances - largely corruption-related? Even fools can be fooled but only for a while. They will become smart with time. But even if they are too late to become intelligent, not so for donors who are concerned about quality recruitment and how they disburse monies paid by their taxpayers. They are also concerned about decency in governance.
That Liberia and Niger were reselected largely because they managed to pass the corruption benchmark is shame onto Sierra Leone and should make us not lose sight of one thing. In more ways than one it absolves civil society and the media who campaigned for years for a Freedom of Information Law with the president disregarding while government ventriloquists called us names for simply asking for such a basic accountability and transparency benchmark. Niger and Liberia ratified an FOI law years before we did, and they did not have to wait for it to be forced down their throat. In our own case, the MCC had to make government, especially our president, sit up and make it happen. Unequivocally, it tells the Americans and well-meaning Sierra Leoneans that the implementation of the FOI law will be another hassle with every politically sensitive information classified as state security or economic interest or some funny interest all of which fall under the exemption clauses in our FOI law.
But while we bemoan the failure by Sierra Leone to meet MCC's main benchmark, we have to move on as a nation and a people to be able to make it through the next time around. What we failed to do in responding last year to the disgraced suspension and possible de-listing of the country from the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), we must not repeat with the MCC. Gladly, if our government is serious about this, the US embassy has put itself at our disposal to right the wrong. But they can only do as much as paper work and provide guidance. Our government must walk the walk. The real fight against corruption has to be waged by the government itself, and it must do so seriously rather than put up some non-denial denials over the fact that corruption is rampant in the country. And it must be seen to be sincere in doing so and not some pick-and-choose approach or prête-a-porter strategy to something as serious. The pace at which some public officials and those close to them are amassing wealth and building houses is shockingly alarming. It cannot be happening through genuine acquisition of wealth. And it is going on without consequence and without anyone batting an eyelid.
The government should involve the media and civil society in this MCC Corrective Drive in a way that does not seek to compromise these institutions. We do not need the MCC Board to force us to be serious in the fight against corruption. It only shows we are unserious in this. The Anti Corruption Commission should be restructured to address the issue of prosecutorial frailty which has beset them especially in recent times. The judiciary should be brought in line in the fight against graft if only without any intention to compromise them. The ACC boss should make it unequivocally clear, and must mean it, that he has no future political ambition or he should go to do something else while he awaits that time to get political. Any thoughts or nursing of a future political ambition will only make him consider strategies to attain such a desire which diminishes his willingness in the real fight for which he is paid a huge salary. He is a well educated man who can pursue his career elsewhere while he awaits the time to take his political plunge. Such divided considerations misguide the commission and weaken the fight to rid the country of corruption.
And much as we have to improve the fight against corruption we must not lose sight of the fact that whenever, if ever, we are considered for MCC reselection, we will be assessed all over again. And the way things look on the rights and justice fronts - with people being locked up on some flaky grounds, courts passing judgements that are clearly aimed at emasculating the opposition and executive instructions in court matters - things will come full throttle to hound us, again. And we will be kicked out of a future MCC reselection never mind Compact status.
It is obvious that some people are celebrating the fact that the country has lost out, at least for now, on the MCC largesse. How unfortunate! That should be no cause for celebration especially if only for the sake of sour grapes. It should reawaken the government to the harsh reality that we all know all too well that corruption is pervasive in public offices. The over 80% negative scorecard as represented in the Transparency International survey is no longer a perception. It is a harsh reality. The courts are not helping matters. Nor is Parliament. And the ACC seems too swarmed and controlled. Whatever happened to the assets declared by many of those appointed five years ago into public offices! Is it that they have all been living and acquiring within their means? That is as laughable as it is untrue. Yet they are doing so without consequence. If we are not careful, and the government does not get serious against this pillaging by some public officials, we will have ourselves to blame when the cookie crumbles. Just like the MCC made the FOI become law, may the MCC make the fight against corruption get more serious and honest. Or Sierra Leone will continue taking one step forwards and three steps backwards.
(C) Politico 17/12/13
