By:Martina George, Communications Officer
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has engaged the leaderships of all stakeholders at the country’s immigration and border points following an on-the-spot monitoring of the three main border points in the country. The stakeholders engaged include the National Revenue Authority (NRA), Immigration Department, Sierra Leone Police (SLP), Integrated Trade Services, National Minerals Agencies (NMA), among others. The engagement took place on the 27th March, 2024 at the ACC’s Integrity House, Tower Hill in Freetown.
Between the 14th and 19th March, 2024, the Corruption Prevention Department of the Commission undertook an on-the-spot monitoring exercise of the three main border posts of Gbalamuya, Jendema and Freetown International Airport, to observe and assess the operations of key stakeholders. The Department says certain weaknesses that have the tendency to create corruption opportunities were observed in all the border points.
The Deputy Commissioner of the ACC, Augustine Foday Ngobie, in his statement, emphasized how people sometimes misconstrue the work of the ACC with that of the police. “The ACC has the core functions of eradicating and minimizing corruption, preventing the re-occurrence of corruption in public offices, educating the masses on the ills of corruption and eliciting help to minimize the scourge.” He added that the Commission can also investigate and prosecute cases of corruption. He encouraged the stakeholders to join forces with the ACC by implementing the recommendations proffered.
Director of the Prevention Department, ACC, Rashid Turay, said that the overall aim of the monitoring exercise was for personnel to conform to the effective implementation of policies and procedures meant to ensure smooth operations of the border posts and as a proactive measure to prevent the occurrence of corruption. “During the on-the-spot monitoring exercise, we observed, among many other things, that there were over 100 illegal crossing points in Kambia. We also found out that the source document used by the Integrated Trade Service (ITS) SL Ltd to generate the 1% fee lacks security features, thereby exposing to corrutpion large amount of cash payments received by NRA/Customs officials in Jendema,” Mr. Turay furthered.
The meeting was climaxed with statements, comments and questions from stakeholders, including a suggestion made by James Cooper, Deputy Assistant Director of the Sierra Leone Immigration Department, for the conduct of training for officials working at the border posts.
There were deliberation on the findings and recommendations, and one of the resolutions was for the recommendations to be acted upon by the ACC and stakeholders involved to improve on the delivery of services at the border points.
