Speaking on the effects of bribery and petty corruption, Samuel Marah noted that, the practice of bribery has overtly affected our justice system, enforcement of the rule of law and quality service delivery to the people of Sierra Leone which he said to tackle needs collective and collaborative effort.
Mr. Marah said, the Pay No Bribe (PNB) campaign, which is the Commission’s flagship project, is a data capturing tool, that shows trends of bribery in five piloted MDAs ( Health, Education, SLP , SALWACO and EDSA ) for informed decision making on the trends of bribery and to increase service delivery in the public sector institutions. He stressed that, PNB reporting platform is established by the ACC and its partners to empower citizens to anonymously report incidents of bribery and petty corruption by calling 515 free on all networks, visit the PNB website; www.pnb.gov.sl, or on the mobile application in Krio, Temne and Mende to make their complaints. Mr Marah implored his audience to join the campaign which he said is a national call to service.
Manager furthered, the PNB campaign is led jointly by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and the Office of the Chief of Staff in coordination with relevant MDAs.
Public Education Officer, ACC, Joseph Hazeley whilst speaking on the need for concerted approach to stem the tide of bribery, defined bribery as provided for in the Anti-Corruption Act of 2008, that “a person who gives , agree to give or offers to a public officer an advantage commits an offence” of bribery and it is punishable by law he noted. He catalogued the act of bribery and extortion, abuse of office and position, illegal/fake admissions, improper award of grades to undeserving students, sexual favours for grades and misappropriation of public funds as major drawbacks in the administration of some Universities.
Mr. Hazeley emphasized that bribery should be considered enemy No.1 that requires the efforts of all and sundry to curb it through systematic radical approach by resisting and reporting any acts of bribery experiences, particularly in the SLP, Health, Education, Electricity and Water sectors.
Earlier in his welcome statement, Head of Department Nursing, Dr. Ansumana R. Konawa thanked the ACC for the timely sensitization on the damaging effects of corruption on the economy of Sierra Leone. Dr. Konawa stated that corruption has has the tendency to put the country in a very bad light, depriving it notably of donor trust, direct foreign investment and tourism. He said the ACC must do more to heighten nationwide awareness on the fight against the malaise.
In her vote of thanks, Angela Manja Bangalie, student of the University, called on the Government of Sierra Leone to pay their lecturers on time stressing that late payment of salaries of their lecturers is a recipe for corruption.