Niawa Lenga, one of the fifteen chiefdoms in Bo district is strategic for business activities and has main routes leading to Yele, Magburaka, and Kono. Nengbema plays a critical part in trade, housing a health centre, junior and senior secondary schools, and several police checkpoints. The ACC Manager South said if the village is to alleviate poverty, it has to embrace the Pay No Bribe campaign. The community must take ownership of the programme by making reports through the PNB reporting platform when they encounter instances of bribery.
Mr. Marah said illegal charges in schools and health centers and sales of free heath care drugs are a heap of burden that increases poverty in the lives of the community people. Payment of booking fees on the traffic and unlawful apprehension of bikes have also compounded the frustration young people face in the hands of law enforcement authorities. He said, bike riders facilitate trade and have become extremely useful in rural areas, increasing mobility to hard-to-reach communities. Section and town chiefs most times do not help in poverty alleviation and often indulge in bribery and corruption. Imposition of unnecessarily exorbitant fines, bias in judgment, extortion of aggrieved parties, and violations of rights continue to plague the health of their subjects, destroy their livelihood, endanger their lives, and under-develop the very community they dwell in.
According to Mr. Marah, the Pay No Bribe campaign has the task of addressing bribery by encouraging people to make report through a 515 free line or the website www.pnb.gov.sl. Service providers also can make bribery complaint on accessing services of other service providers. For example, a police officer accessing health services can make report on encountering instances of corruption. Reports made are anonymous.
Center for Accountability and the Rule of Law (CARL) Southern Coordinator, Jeremy Simbo, said Nengbema should unite behind the ACC and claim ownership of the PNB by making full use of the reporting portal. He said CARL has an animator in the chiefdom, who helps villagers file complaint using the PNB App. The App can also be downloaded on smart phones. Jeremy said CARL has animators in the fifteen chiefdoms of Bo District with eight in Bo township (Kakua Chiefdom).
Similar PNB community meetings have also been held in Nyandehun and Mbundorbu; Kakua and Baoma Chiefdoms respectively in Bo District.
The Pay No Bribe has an objective of increasing service delivery, curbing professional malpractices, preventing bribery and petty corruption, developing and instituting policies, and instilling discipline and integrity in the workplace. It targets five service delivery institutions in this pilot phase such as the police, health, education, GUMA/SALWACO, and EDSA. It analyzes trends of bribery and proffers administrative measures to tackle the problem.
Barely two weeks ago, the Commission released PNB Report for the last three months in 2016. A total of seven thousand and twenty-seven (7,027) complaints were received; and of these figures, five thousand six hundred and two (79.7%) reported paying a bribe; eight hundred and eighty-five (12.5%) reported not paying a bribe; and five hundred and forty (7.7%) met and honest person. These figures are expected to increase as more and more people gain confidence in the system. They can surprisingly decrease as MDAs institute and implement policies regulating staff behaviour.
