In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. Mr. Chairman, distinguished guests, please permit me to greet you in the Islamic way: Assalam Mualaikum. I also bring you greetings from the small West African country of Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone became a member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in 1972, and since then, we have shown tremendous commitment to the objectives and principles of the organization and its fundamental purpose of strengthening the solidarity and cooperation among the Member States. 

In the last six years, Sierra Leone has made tremendous strides in the area of good governance as we have had successive democratic elections and very peaceful transitions of governments in the last 25 years.

Part of our good governance drive is our robust control of corruption, which the Holy Quran descrbies as ‘Fasad’, especially in the last six years of the leadership of His Excellency Brig. (Rtd.) Dr Julius Maada Bio. The President has consistently spoken of the fact that corruption poses an existential threat to the development of a nation.

Corruption or ‘Fasad’, which is often defined as the abuse of private office for personal benefit, is not only an abhorrent act, but also a sinful act. We all know the consequences of endemic and unchecked corruption, which include civil conflict like the one Sierra Leone experienced throughout the 1990s.

Mr Chairman, distinguished guests, we also need to address corruption in order to safeguard public and donor funds. Sierra Leone has been a big beneficiary of donor support like those received from the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) and the Arab Bank for Economic Development (BADEA). For example, just last month, at the 357th Meeting of the Board of the Islamic Development Bank, the Board approved 72.29 million US dollars to finance Sierra Leone’s efforts at improving transport infrastructure and enhancing connectivity.

From 2019 to present, 23 Sierra Leoneans have benefitted from OIC scholarships to pursue undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral studies in OIC member states. These funds and scholarships are part of what helps us to develop as a nation, and that is why we should protect them. When President Bio took over the leadership of the country, he singled out corruption as one of the main areas that required urgent attention. He later went on to appoint a very young man in the person of Francis Ben Kaifala Esq. to lead the country’s anti-corruption campaign. The President later appointed me, Augustine Foday Ngobie, as the Deputy Commissioner.

In all these past years, we have employed a robust multi-prong approach to the fight against corruption including; public education, prevention, intelligence and investigation, prosecution, non-prosecution assets based recovery, among others.

Under our public education strategy, the Commission educates Sierra Leoneans about the ills of corruption and the benefits of its eradication. With this, we make use of radio, television, newspapers, the Commission’s newsletter and bulletin, social media, community outreach and customized meetings, to reach out to the public, including schools and universities, civil society organisations. We also have a website, www.anticorruption.gov.sl which is regularly updated with news and information on the work of the Commission.

Our prevention drive involves addressing systems weaknesses in public offices. This includes the conduct of systems and processes reviews in ministries, departments and agencies of government. We also institute policies and ethics and mainstream other anti-corruption tools and measures in a bid to make the institutions effective and efficient in the delivery of public goods and services. These activities have also helped in reducing wastages and improving revenue generation in revenue-generating institutions.

In the area of intelligence and investigation, thanks to the review of our anti-corruption law, which has given us more powers, we have an elite ‘Scorpion Squad’ which has been conducting covert and overt operations to detect acts of corruption and nab individuals engaged in such acts.

Our anti-corruption agency is one of the few agencies in the world with prosecutorial powers to directly take cases to court. Our judiciary has also established the Anti-Corruption Division, a specialized division in the criminal division of the High Court, made up of dedicated judges to speedily try our cases. Our anti-corruption law, in 2019, went through significant reviews and we have leveraged on these developments by ensuring that we have one of the highest conviction rates, which currently stands above 90 percent.

Mr Chairman, distinguished guests, another strategy that has significantly helped our anti-corruption campaign is our Non-Prosecution Assets Based Recovery system. This enables us to enter into out of court settlement agreements in cases where we think the prospect for conviction is sometimes low, or where the benefits of recovering stolen funds far outweigh those of seeking a conviction in our courts. With this, we have been able to recover millions of US dollars in the last six years.

Challenges

Mr Chairman, distinguished guests, amidst these gains in the fight against corruption there are also many challenges which I am going to share with you now, because as the saying goes “A problem shared is a problem half solved”.

Lack of funds and other resources. Currently, almost 100 percent of support for our operations comes from the Government of Sierra Leone. But, as we all know, governments across the world always have many other sectors competing for its limited resources. That is why I am appealing for support from especially wealthy OIC Member States for support towards our anti-corruption efforts.

Recommendations

Mr Chairman, distinguished guests, as we gather here for this meeting, I would like to recommend the hosting of many more similar meetings. And, it will also be important that we establish a body of anti-corruption agencies of OIC Member States. Such a body should ensure the following:

Regular meetings of Member States. I believe the more we meet the more we have the opportunity to learn lessons from each other and understand each other’s challenges and how to overcome them whenever we face them.

Information sharing.

Member States could use the body as a means of sharing information on issues of corruption and other financial crimes like money laundering. We can share information to ensure that our States do not become a safe haven for any individual that is suspected of committing an economic crime in any of our Member States.

Support for Member States. 

The body may also be used to assess the challenges affecting Member States in the fight against corruption and other economic crimes. The body should therefore find ways of providing expertise, logistical and financial support to Member States in order to address such challenges. A dedicated fund to support anti-corruption agencies in Member States should also be strongly considered.