By: Alex A. Bah, Ag. Public Relations Officer, ACC
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has once again projected Sierra Leone’s growing global leadership in the fight against corruption, syolen wealth/asset recovery, and international cooperation. This follows a compelling presentation delivered by the ACC's Deputy Commissioner, Augustine Foday Ngobie, at the Second Resumed Sixteenth Session of the Implementation Review Group (IRG) Meeting on the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), held from 1st – 5th September 2025 in Vienna, Austria.
Addressing delegates from across the globe, the Deputy Commissioner reaffirmed Sierra Leone’s unwavering commitment to implementing Chapters IV (International Cooperation) and V (Asset Recovery) of the UNCAC, underscoring the country’s transformative reforms, robust legal frameworks, and unprecedented asset recoveries.
Mr. Ngobie highlighted that Sierra Leone has fully domesticated the UNCAC through the Anti-Corruption Act, 2008 (as amended in 2019), which now provides a comprehensive legal foundation for asset tracing, recovery, and seamless cross-border cooperation.
In the landmark update, he revealed that in April 2025, Sierra Leone signed the African Asset Recovery Practitioners (AARP) Forum Charter in Nairobi, Kenya, a major milestone that aligns the country with the Common African Position on Asset Recovery (CAPAR) and enhances continental efforts to trace, seize, and return stolen wealth to the state.
Mr. Ngobie also announced Sierra Leone’s historic admission as a full member of the prestigious Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units in July 2025, granting the nation secured access to intelligence-sharing platforms with over 170 jurisdictions worldwide, a significant boost to its international cooperation credentials.
On asset recoveries, he disclosed that since 2018, the ACC has successfully recovered and returned to the state over NLe 75 million (approximately USD 3.2 million) in cash, houses, vehicles, laptops, and other high-value assets. Notably, he maintained that between 2024 and September 2025 alone, an additional NLe 40.1 million (USD 1.7 million) has been recovered, making Sierra Leone one of Africa’s top-performing nations in asset recovery
Mr. Ngobie further informed the gathering that in Sieera Leone’s efrorts to fight corruption and uphold accountability, had successfully secured the arrest and repatriation of a high-profile corruption fugitive, Elizabeth King, from The Gambia, which he said was achieved via collaboration with INTERPOL.
Another significant event on the sidelines of the Vienna meeting is that Sierra Leone is also poised to sign a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Prosecutor-General’s Office of the Russian Federation to deepen cross-border collaboration on asset recovery, intelligence exchange, and prosecution support.
“Corruption knows no borders. We must work together to ensure that stolen wealth is recovered and returned, and that the corrupt find no refuge anywhere in the world”, Mr. Ngobie said whilst calling for stronger global alliances.
Sierra Leone’s active and strategic participation at this high-level UNCAC meeting reaffirms its rising profile on the global anti-corruption stage and highlights the visionary leadership of the ACC, that has positioned it as a continental force in the fight against corruption.
