He believes the PNB is more practical in approach and therefore sit very well in so far as the current state of the problem of bribery in Sierra Leone. Dilating on the current state of corruption in Sierra Leone, Mr. Banya outlined three levels that the menace takes: the incidental which has less effect on the macro economy; the systematic which affects the macro economic development of the nation and the systemic which makes corruption a way of life for some, hence demanding draconian measures for its eradication.
Giving a vivid background of the PNB, Public Relations Officer, Alhassan Kargbo, established a correlation between corruption and poverty, corruption and conflict, corruption and hostilities and corruption and broken institutions. Mr. Kargbo said it is because of these correlations that all serious Governments as in the case of the Government of Sierra Leone is designing initiatives to reduce, if not eradicate corruption. The PRO informed staff of MOHS that the PNB campaign was designed as a scientific tool used to gather data relating to the frequency, the patterns and the cost of bribery in a bid to improve service delivery and promote good governance.
Mr. Kargbo noted that the PNB is an anonymous system of reporting bribery that helps the country to do a trend analysis of same thereby leading to appropriate administrative actions at sectoral levels. He reiterated that the system was designed to do a systems analysis rather than focusing on prosecution, without however eroding the Commission’s core mandate in that direction.
Speaking about the current update on the portal, Lewellyn O’Connor, PNB Data Analyst, told the audience that the MOHS shares 21.3% of the total I paid a bribe figures in the portal which is third after the SLP and the Education Sector. Mr. O’Connor noted that the services which attract most of these negative reports are: pregnancy and child health, under fives and medical tests. Most of these reports that Data Analyst revealed were made by women.
Presentation of Pay No Bribe, Information and Educational materials formed part of the engagement.
