The Public Education and External Outreach Unit of the Anti-Corruption Commission’s (ACC) Northern Regional office has enlightened staff of the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA) on the importance of forestalling corruption and upholding integrity within the public sector in a customized meeting. Itself a strategy for precluding graft through the spread of education and information, the engagement was held on April 9, on the premises of the Authority in Makeni.
According to ACC’s Senior Public Education Officer, Aiah Sourie, preventing corruption enhances transparency and accountability within the public sector and increases service quality. Aside from ensuring proper use of entrusted funds, it earns and heightens public trust and confidence in the public service systems. Mr. Sourie further informed his audience that the Commission has prevention as one of its effectual tools in tackling the scourge of corruption.
As provided for in Section 8 (f) of the Anti-Corruption Act of 2008 (as amended in 2019), the Commission’s Prevention Department examines the practices and procedures of public institutions in an attempt to identify any areas conducive to corruption and corrupt practices. “Once a review has been done on a given public body, the ACC develops recommendations to plug corruption-friendly systems gaps to optimize work integrity and quality service.” The anti-graft officer then stressed that systems reviews of Ministries, Departments and Agencies are not designed to persecute anyone or any institution.
On reviews recently carried out by the ACC, Mr. Sourie cited three, on the National Fire Force, Ministry of Water Resources, and the National Telecommunications Authority. He explained that the Commission has popularized the review reports on all three institutions guaranteeing its competence and willingness to support public bodies to deliver on their mandates without seeking undue advantage. He revealed that the findings show cross-cutting issues such as fleet and fuel management, procurement, and staffing.
“We should bear in mind that the surest crutch in preventing corruption is integrity,” the ACC Legal Clerk in the region, Ibrahim Bangura, avowed in his contribution to the meeting. He encouraged the EDSA staff to invariably put public interest above personal interest in delivering service to the public and collaborate with the ACC to rid the Authority of probable acts of corruption. He further urged the staff to scrutinize their own procedures for corruption fault lines and take the necessary actions to resolve them.
Mr. Bangura disclosed that anti-corruption Systems Reviews go with recommendations which reviewed public bodies are obliged to comply with. He made known that institutions’ compliance level is determined by a 0-100% score system. That is, institutions that score between 0%-49% are non-compliant and liable to indictment, and those scoring 50%-79% are served warning letters ; while those scoring between 80%-89% are considered as having significantly complied and are however further engaged, those that score between 90%-100% are considered as fully compliant and given awards or a letters of congratulations.
Responding to the integrity messages, the Northern Regional Head of EDSA, George Seiya, thanked the ACC for the engagement and promised to work hard on preventing the occurrence of corruption for an efficient and effective electricity distributor and supplier in the region. He assured the ACC officers that he would work together with his colleagues to revitalize the entity’s already defunct Integrity Management Committee, an internal structure tasked with preventing and managing corruption within its operations.
During the question-and-answer session of the meeting, some participants confessed that they had always thought the ACC was only preoccupied with investigating and prosecuting alleged acts of corruption. One of them had this to say: “I am happy to have attended this meeting, as I have learned that the ACC has robust prevention measures in the fight against corruption.”
