The ceremony took place on Friday 11th January, 2019 in the conference room of the ACC, Gloucester Street in Freetown.
He went on to say that he believes that the step taken by CHRDI is in the right direction to assisting the ACC fight corruption in the country. He added that the publication of a handbook containing the rules and regulations of what is expected of the private sector as far as curbing corruption is concerned would be very handy indeed.
He went on to say that one way this can be done is to first get the correct information that helps people to better understand what corruption is; why it is wrong; how to report corruption; its negative effect on society and how we can fight it.. He added that the emphasis should be on correct, timely, transparent, coherent and reliable information which could be used in formulating legislation in fighting corruption as far as the private sector is concerned.
The ACC Commissioner said it is critical that important stakeholders are partnering with the Commission to launder and reposition the image of the country in a bid to improve the living standard of citizens.
Speaking earlier, Executive Director Campaign for Human Rights and Development International (CHRDI), Abdul Fatomah outlined his reasons for partnering with the ACC in this bold initiative, he said among other things that CHRDI is partnering with the ACC to help popularize the fight against corruption. He went on to say that inasmuch as the fight against corruption seems to be directed solely at public officials and civil servants, it would be in place for the fight against corruption to be taken one step further by taking the fight to the private sector.
He explained that CHRDI plans to engage the private sector at community level to explore issues of corruption for investigation. This, he went on would assist in the collection of information and other useful data that could be used in formulating a law that identifies and deals with corruption or corrupt individuals in the private sector.
He thanked Commissioner Ben Kaifala for seeing the necessity a handbook on compliance and integrity within the private sector which informs private sector players their roles, obligations and duties with regard taxation, labor laws, PAYE, etc in as far as fighting corruption within the private sector is concerned.
The climax of the occasion was the signing of the MoU between Commissioner Kaifala representing the ACC and Abdul Fatomah representing CHRDI and witnessed by a handful of ACC staff and journalists.
Commissioner Kaifala assured CHRDI that the required information on the work of the Commission will be provided to CHRDI to empower them in their advocacy.