BRITISH GOVERNMENT LOSES PATIENCE WITH THE SIERRA LEONE GOVERNMENT OVER CORRUPTION
The government of Tony Blair
has finally
got the message which had been ignored all these years, (that those in authority
in Sierra Leone are merely playing lip service when they say they are serious
about tackling corruption,) and decided to cut direct funding to the Prof Joko-Smart
headed Anti Corruption Commission.
After months of warning the Blair government of the deception that is being played out in Freetown in their so-called avowed policy to tackle corruption, Mr Blair has finally realised that the British Tax payers money should not be poured in an ever-yawning chasm that represents the greed of government functionaries in Sierra Leone!!!!
A new report available on the website of DfID, the UK ministry responsible for international development and titled "Annual Review 2006 of DFID Support to Anti-Corruption Commission Phase 2" has this piece.
Recommendations:
The review therefore recommends that DFID does not continue support to the ACC
Sierra Leone, but broadens and integrates its anti-corruption efforts into
existing programmes, and develops alternative avenues for supporting
anticorruption activities, including:
• Considering how AC activities could be
integrated into justice and security sector, reform programmes;
• Considering introducing new prevention measures into civil service reforms,
such as designing and implementing vetting procedures for key positions in the
wider public sector as well as to security services;
• Continuing to support corruption preventive measures such as improved records
management, payroll verification, improved public financial management and
procurement reform;
• Increasing the focus on activities to increase citizens’ demand for greater
accountability, including through support to civil society and the media, and
specifically in relation to local government (around transparency clauses in the
2004 Local Government Act) and developing open transparent systems in chiefdom
governance through DFID’s support to the decentralisation process and working
with civil society;
• Supporting civil society to independently monitor the implementation of
national anti-corruption programmes;
• Targeting the private sector, in particular removing obstacles to inward
investment, and sharing best practice/achievements, including consideration of
partnerships with professional, industrial, and commercial associations.
And this after persistent warnings from British Development Secretaries Clare Short and the present man in the post Hillary Benn who on a number of occasions warned about the evils of corruption and the need for the Tejan Kabbah government to tackle the evil head-on.
Here's one Hillary Benn made while in Freetown some three years ago.
In that speech, it is worth noting his reference to an earlier speech made in Freetown by the woman he succeeded, Ms Clare Short and we quote this excerpt
Two years ago, here in Freetown, Clare Short gave a speech in which she emphasised the urgent need to take decisive action on corruption if Sierra Leone was to be secure and to address the poverty affecting the majority of your people. She chose to devote a key speech to this issue for a very good reason. This is that no matter what the achievements of Sierra Leone are in the whole range of developmental challenges, they are all liable to be fatally undermined by corruption. One of the key attributes of corruption is that its effects are seen by people in all areas of society and at all levels. They do not need to be told about it. It affects their lives every day. Quite apart from its practical or material effects in denying the people their rights and perpetuating inequity, it contributes to a pervasive sense that, fundamentally, things have not really changed. It feeds a sense of hopelessness. It is conducive to apathy and undermines the sense of civic pride. It threatens everything.
And later, much later after the Clare Short speech, His Excellency Alhaji Dr Ahmad Tejan Kabbah granted an interview to the BBC's Tim Sebastian on the TV programme "Hard Talk". Quite an interesting exchange with His Very Excellency sometimes getting hot under the collar.
When the Anti Corruption Commission under Val Collier tried to highlight the Commission's work through the press by announcing those under scrutiny, President Kabbah, a man who would have us believe that he is the great anti-corruption hero was an angry man and at the launch of the National Anti Corruption Strategy meeting wasted no time in flailing Val Collier and hi team for daring to name some of his friends as targets.
