In his presentation on the country position, the Commissioner stated that Sierra Leone was successfully reviewed by the States of Thailand and Benin. He commended the reviewers for the support, patience and understanding they demonstrated throughout the entire process, a period when the country was confronted the challenge of dealing with the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), which made country visits practically impossible. Commissioner emphasized that, Sierra Leone has taken steps to address the comments and recommendations made by the Secretariat and reviewers especially in the areas of fully criminalizing the active bribery of foreign public officials and officials of public international organizations, passive bribery of such officials and fully criminalizing bribery in the private sector.
He further underscored, Sierra Leone completed its Self Assessment Check List for the second review cycle of Chapters II and V in June of 2015, although it is progressively updated based on developments that are taking place.
As a way forward to making Sierra Leone fully compliant to the UNCAC, the Commissioner disclosed that the following will be implemented: set up SACL taskforce within ACC; identify stakeholders to complete the SACL and, organize a workshop to train participants in completing the SACL.
Commissioner Macauley took the opportunity to commend the UK Government for the support it has provided to Sierra Leone through DFID in the fight against corruption. He informed the meeting that with the help of DFID, the ACC is rolling out a Pay No Bribe (PNB) campaign which will provide Sierra Leoneans and residents the platform to report acts of bribery and petty corruption anonymously. He further stated that, this will help in mapping out corruption trends in the country and the actions taken by the targeted institutions. A successful Pay No Bribe campaign will help in enhancing and improving Public Service Delivery, he stressed.
In a related development, Mr. Macauley took part in a specialist panel discussion on preventive measures and asset recovery under Chapters II and V of UNCAC with the President of the Supreme Court of El Salvador, the Deputy Attorney General, El Salvador, and the Anti-Corruption Chief of Mauritius also serving as panelists. He also held tripartite meeting with delegates from Luxembourg and Togo who will be reviewing Sierra Leone’s implementation of chapters II and V of UNCAC starting July, 2016.
It is very significant that Sierra Leone was represented at this meeting, as it will further strengthen the already existing local structures of the global approach to the fight against corruption, the ACC boss maintained.
