The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) continues to resourcefully engage Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to enhance integrity, transparency and accountability for optimal service delivery to the public. As such, the Commission’s Northern Regional Office on 2nd October, 2024,held a customized meeting with staff of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MAFS) at the Ministry’s conference hall in Makeni.
Making a statement at the engagement, Senior Public Education Officer, Aiah Sourie, made clear that although the Commission investigates and prosecutes corruption, it is primarily concerned with prevention. This, he explained, is mostly done through disseminating adequate information and education and carrying out corruption risk assessments with a fine-tooth comb in public bodies. He therefore assured the MAFS staff that the object of the meeting was to educate them on the potential effects of corruption on the Feed Salone programme.
The agriculture sector is crucial to the overall development of the country, Mr. Sourie remarked. According to him, the sector employs more than 60 per cent of the population and accounts for more than 50 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). And the introduction of the Feed Salone initiative in 2023, which is aimed at achieving food security, increased export earning, among other things, confers more relevance on the sector. He however cautioned that corruption is a serious menace to the programme and every effort should be made to avert it from being tampered with.
While highlighting that corruption would cause a loss of funds and agricultural inputs, worsen poverty and hunger, the anti-graft officer encouraged his audience to commit to upholding the standard procedure that governs the implementation of Feed Salone. “The success of this ambitious initiative is in our hands as Sierra Leoneans. You who are directly working in the MAFS should take the lead to ensure that the initiative is safely taken to its destination,” he concluded.
In his contribution, ACC Prevention Officer, Musa Mansaray, underlined preventing corruption as a relatively cheaper and less time-consuming strategy than investigating and prosecuting the peril. He likened precluding corruption for the success of government projects and programmes to using pesticides to protect crop health and ensure increased yield. He informed the MAFS workers that the ACC has a capable Prevention Department tasked to thoroughly assess corruption risks in MDAs, adding that the Commission is always willing to strategically support them to run a more efficient sector.
The Prevention Officer, referring to Section 7 (f) (g) (h) of the Anti-Corruption Act of 2008 (Amended in 2019), explained that after assessing the danger of corruption in a given MDA,the ACC tenders suggestions such as policy change to eliminate corruption or the threats of it. “This service can also be extended to private institutions,’ he said‘and it’s free of cost.”
Mr. Mansaray furthered that the Prevention Department of the Commission is divided into three complimentary parts: Systems and Processes Review Unit, which assesses corruption risk in MDAs; Policy and Ethics Unit, which deals with installing transparency and accountability; and Monitoring and Compliance Unit, which ensures that MDAs comply with anti-corruption best practice measures.
On compliance, Mr. Mansaray disclosed that public bodies are scored on a scale of 0%-100%. While MDAs scoring within 0-49% are considered as non-compliant and are liable to be indicted, those scoring within 50%-79% are deemed as moderately compliant and liable to be served a warning letter. On the higher scale, those scoring within 80%-89% are significantly compliant and encouraged to improve; and those scoring within 90%-100% are fully compliant and given letters of compliments.
Responding to the anti-corruption messages, Lamin Mbogba, thanked the ACC for the meeting, commending its preventive methods in the fight against corruption. He pledged that the MAFS will guard the Feed Salone and other agricultural programmes against corruption by maintaining integrity as the bedrock of quality public service delivery. He called for more engagements and strategic partnership with the ACC.
