ACC Biting Deeper and Deeper, But…! In days gone by, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) was described as a toothless bulldog; a one-eyed eagle; a spineless cobra and several other descriptions, all pointing to the belief that the ACC was not up to the task of arresting corrupt officials and minimizing corruption in a country which has suffered for too long as a result of this cankerworm eating into our country’s fabric! This remained the culture of the ACC during much of the terms of the first two Sierra Leoneans appointed to serve as Commissioners of the ACC. However, the ACC as we now see it, seems to be relinquishing its past and moving fast toward creating a name for itself in the fight against corruption that would be worth its salt. We are not about to give 100% support to the ACC. What we wish to state here is that in recent months the ACC has been seen being more proactive than reactive in the way and manner it is handling corruption matters. This is not to say that there is no room for improvement. Rather, we wish to point out the fact that the ACC unlike its former self has actually succeeded at gaining the confidence of the general public who now believe that when they report a corrupt matter to the ACC, the former would not gloss over the information and then shelve it; but would go out of its way to ensure that results are arrived at and the culprits brought to book. The Acc in recent months has successfully investigated a number of high profile cases with the help of the Sierra Leone Police which we shall not go into because these matters are now before various courts. What we can say however is that the most recent arrests of corrupt teachers in various secondary and primary schools across Freetown for collecting monies before releasing end of year results to pupils and parents is not a new phenomenon in this country. Though we are happy that at last something is being done by informants and the ACC to put a halt to this age-long trend, we only hope that the ACC does not stop at prosecuting teachers alone whose salaries are ridiculous. The ACC should go a step further by investigating the principals and head teachers of the respective schools because we want to believe that like traffic Police who collect bribes from drivers and give a cut to their respective bosses; so too does teachers to their respective principals and head teachers. That beside, we also want the ACC to spread their nets wider because there are many bigger and more dangerous corrupt individuals out there that are silently destroying the country’s economy, our children and other facets of our society through their clandestine activities. There is a lot of corruption going on in our land tenure system which seems to be evading the watchful eagle eyes of the ACC. There is massive corruption taking place in the Sierra Police. We can hazard a guess that there is colossal corruption eating into the fabric of the Sierra Leone Prisons Service. Yet sadly and to the detriment of Sierra Leone’s progress, all of these do not seem to be seen by the ACC lens. It is therefore our submission that though the ACC is doing well in some areas, it is not doing so well in other areas. We therefore want the ACC to spread its net wider and farther into deeper corruption seas if it really hopes of ridding this country of corruption and in the process carving a name for itself in the annals of this country’s history!
Posted on: Thu, 25 Jul 2013 10:09:57 +0000