2. Page 2 for Social Action (NaCSA). The Deputy Commissioner of the ACC commenced the comprehensive and thorough supervision and beneficiary reassuring mop - up operations at the NaCSA Office in Moyamba Town, Southern Sierra Leone. Addressing hundreds of beneficiaries, the ACC strongman reassured the expectant crowd that each beneficiary shall receive what was due them, without any harassment, extortion, or intimida- tion. ‘’When we paid many of you the last time, there were those of you who did not receive your payments or did not ac- cess your money due to several chal- lenges. Your concerns were noted by us, worked on and we are out here again to ensure all of you in that category receive what is legitimately due you’’, Mr. Ngobie averred. He furthered that all concerns and challenges that beneficiaries across the eleven districts faced have been addressed and encouraged the beneficiaries to exercise patience as all will be attended to by the team, and they will be paid electronically. ‘’There are about 3500 of you who were affected and did not get your monies last . I am here to help ensure the proper thing is done, your concerns are addressed swiftly’ and you all get paid’’, Mr. Ngobie assured. He also stated that any one of the affected beneficiaries in the eleven project districts of Pujehun, Moyamba, Bonthe, Karene, Falaba, Kambia, Koina- dugu, Tonkolili, Kono, Kailahun, and Western Rural Districts, shall receive the sum of Le 2,660. The ACC Deputy Commissioner A Team from the Anti - Corruption Commission (ACC), spearheaded by its Deputy Commissioner, Augustine Foday Ngobie, in collaboration with other stakeholders in the im- plementation of the" Third Cohort Contingency Emergency Cash Transfer (ECT)" across 11 Districts in Sierra Leone, on 25th January 2024, commenced robust supervision to sort out challenges that inhibit the successful payment of the over 3500 beneficiaries during the payment of 35,005 beneficiary households. During and after the payment in October 2023, it was observed that some 3500 beneficiaries either did not receive their monies or were unable to access their payments as a result of some technical hitches. The hitches include; wrong entry of beneficiary phone numbers, misplaced mobile phones, and SIM cards; blocked SIM cards, and blocked Orange money accounts caused by the repeated entering of wrong passwords, etc. These concerns were noted as grievances by the ACC Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM) Outfit. The issues were worked on and addressed by Orange Ltd. SL and the National Commission By: Sylvanus Blake, PRO - CC Deputy Commissioner, ACC Au- gustine Foday Ngobie admonishing beneficiaries. Beneficiaries raptly listening to the Deputy Commissioner encouraged the processing and payment teams to ensure the beneficiaries are serviced swiftly as many are old, weak, feeble and vulnerable. It could be recalled that in October 2023, the ACC with other partners rolled out the Productive Social Safety Net and Youth Employment (PSSNYE) project. This has as one of it components the payment of unconditional one - off electronic (mobile money) cash transfer of Two Thousand, Six Hundred New Leo- nes (Le: 2600) to some Thirty - Five Thousand (35,000) beneficiary households. In 2022, the World Bank and UNICEF committed a $40 Million Grant to the Productive Social Safe- ty Net and Youth Employment (PSSNYE), a five - year (2023 to 2027) project, that seeks to provide unconditional cash transfer to bene- ficiary households, employment for youth, through the labour intensive cash for work and entrepreneurial skills support to youths.

4. T he Anti - Corruption Commission (ACC) on 23 rd January 2024, engaged staff of the Nutrition Unit of the Tonkolili District Health Management Team in Magburaka. The customized meeting was part of the Commission’s unflinching commitment to raise awareness on corruption and the urgent need to curb it for quality public service delivery. Delivering the anti - graft messages, Senior Public Education Officer, Abdul Karim Bangura, thanked staff of the Unit for hosting officers of the Commission’s Northern Regional Office located in Makeni. Mr. Bangura explained the negative effects of corruption particularly on state - owned institutions citing huge loss of public funds which, in turn, deprives the public of much - needed services. Mr Bangura furthered that corruption does not only stifle economic growth in the country, but also saps public trust and confidence in public institutions. Corruption, he continued, can also scare away investors and discourage donors to implement life - saving projects and programmes. He therefore described corruption as peril to all sustainable development ef- forts. ‘We should therefore consider fighting this threat as a civic duty,’ he urged the nutritionists. According to the anti - graft officer, to begin to fight corruption one must accept its existence, understand its modes and impacts. He therefore outlined reported acts of impropriety and interventions aimed at tackling malnutrition, which has claimed the lives of thousands of children under 5 especially in rural communities. He pleaded with the staff of the Unit to endeavour to resist and report corruption to the ACC using either of the toll - free lines 077985985 or 077986986, during business hours. In his contribution, Senior Public Education Officer, Aiah Sourie, pointed out that Government and its partners have made serious strides to address malnutrition as a significant threat to the overall health and wellbeing of children. ‘Malnutrition limits the potential of children to learn and be productive later in life,’ he said, adding that although Sierra Leone has made progress in achieving the target to reduce stunting, there is still a staggering number of children suf- fering from the condition. Mr. Sourie emphasized that corruption could reverse the gains so far achieved in arresting and managing malnutrition. Therefore, he called on staff of the Nutri- tion Unit to invariably consider service to man over service to self. He informed his audience about the Commission’s ongoing nation - wide consultations to elicit the views and opinions of a wide - range of stakeholders to craft the 5 th generation of the National Anti - Corruption Strategy (NACS 2024 - 2028). Mr. Sourie underscored the Commission’s inclusive approach in the fight against corruption, explaining that the NACS is the collective voice and action of the citizens to achieve a corruptfree Sierra Leone. He further informed them that the bi - annual online declaration of asset, income and liabilities with the Commission has begun and encouraged them to act accordingly to avoid penalties. The District Nutritionist, Mira Jones, thanked the ACC officers for the meeting and pledged to mainstream anti - corruption values in her Unit, in spite of several challenges in handling 45 Out - Patient Therapeutic and 3 In–Patient Facilities within the District. She received IEC materials from the ACC Team and promised to display them in places where the public will easily see and read them. ACC and the Tonkolili District Nutrition staff after the meeting Tonkolili District Nutritionist, Mira Jones, receiving IEC materials from ACC Snr Public Education Officer, Abdul Karim Bangura

3. Page 3 F or the 5 th consecutive year in five years, Sierra Leone has, again, progressed upwards in Transparency International’s Global Corruption Country Rankings, moving from 110 in 2022 to 108 out of 180 countries surveyed in the 2023 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (TI - CPI) published on 30 th January, 2024. Sierra Leone also increased its 2022 score of thirty - four (34) to thirty - five (35) in 2023, which is again above the sub - Saharan average, and the highest the country has ever recorded since the CPI ranking s began. In five years consistently, Sierra Leone has moved twenty - two (22) places upwards on the CPI, from 130 in 2017 to 108 in 2023. The just - released CPI reveals that Sierra Leone continues to make remarkable progress in the World’s m ost respected corruption watchdog’s assessment and rankings and now leads Seventy - Two (72) countries in the global campaign against corruption, including Thirty - One (31) African countries, among which are; Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Cameroon, Uganda, Kenya, Angola, Madagascar, Mozambique, Niger an d Libya. According to TI, “this year’s CPI shows mixed results in Africa, with signific ant improvements in a few countries. However, most African countries experienced stagnation, maintaining the region’s consisten tly poor performance, with an unaltered regional average score of 33”. Nonetheless, Sierra Leone performed better than the Average Score in Sub - Saharan Africa for the fourth year (score of 35 in 2023), and has consistently improved in the past four years. The CPI is an annual survey used by TI, the leading global civil society watchdog on the global fight against corruption, to assess comparative perceived levels of public sector corruption in countries across the World. It could also be recalled that, Sierra Leone has been outstanding in its Score in the ‘Control of Co rruption’ Indicator in the Millennium Challenge Corporation Scorecard, with consistent excellent scores above 70% in 6 consecutive years . Similar exponential jumps have been recorded in other respected global corruption measurement inst itutions like Afrobarometer which confirmed that corruption prevalence has considerably reduced from 70% in 2015 to 40% in 2020, when the last survey was conducted. Contd from Pg 1 Paul A. Conteh Lecturer, Department of Sociology & Social Work Fourah Bay College The audience at the Tunde Cole Build- ing during the Public Lecture of ACC Commissioner . Despite the volume of work at the Anti - Corruption Commission, the barrister creates time to teach, grant media interviews, deliver public speeches, and write for global publishing platforms. He understands that the liberation of black people can be triggered through public engagement with officials meant to lead the struggle. This was one of the many reasons he em- powered the Public Education and External Outreach Department to bring the nation along in the war on corruption. As I watched him speak at Fourah Bay College last week, I concluded that Francis Ben Kaifala is the leading public intellectual in Sierra Leone. He does not have a dominant domain. He can speak from the church pulpit or an academic podium; he can write for a newspaper or a human rights blog; he can invite the press to his office or honour the call to be at a media house; he can use social media to engage his followers or got his name dropped in pop culture trend for his fans. Francis understands that his work at the Anti - Corruption Commission is the start of a purpose - driven life. He studied the iconic black intellectuals that graced the planet. He can make his message count through his writings and words for the public sphere.

1. 29th January —2nd February 2024 Issue 2 Volume 2 INTEGRITY HOUSE, TOWER HILL FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE EDITORIAL TEAM EDITOR - IN - CHIEF Abubakarr Turay EDITORS Sylvanus Blake Alex A. Bah LAYOUT & GRAPHICS Philippa M Davies EDITORIAL ADVISERS Augustine Foday Ngobie Patrick Sandi years, the intellectual impact of the forefathers of the African in- dependent struggle cannot be over - emphasized. Nelson Man- dela, Patrice Lumumba, Robert Mugabe, Jul- ius Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah, and Jomo Kenyatta were great orators. They utilized their speaking skills to rally the nation- alistic base towards a cry for freedom (something which they all achieved). Francis is simply walking in the footsteps of these black thinkers, speakers, and writers. Most people tend to sleep on the fact that the barrister’s rise to fame was through public punditry. By the turn of 2010, he actively used social media to provide commentary and analysis on issues around politics, public policy, and governance. His blue- print was something adopted over the years. Jamaican - born political activist was best remembered for communicating his Gar- veysm ideology through speeches, es- says, and short letters. In the era of the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were the names that took center stage. As Martin Luther King preached his gospel of peaceful change and racial integration in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Malcolm X delivered a different message – Black Nationalism. Whilst Martin Luther King Jr. was poetic and sermon - centric with his delivery, Malcolm X electrified urban audiences with his eloquent prose and inspirational style. The two black intellectuals might have ideological differences but never hesitated to engage in the pulpit, podium, or publishing house. This tradition of black public intellectualism was also present in the continent during the colonial days. Even though this aspect has dwindled over the T he black global struggle has always witnessed the emergence of public intellectuals from America to Africa. A public intellectual is often a well - known specialist in a particular field, who is comfortable and confident enough to communicate conversations in this particular field through academia, media, and popular culture. Francis Ben Kaifala is THE LEADING public intellectual in Sierra Leone. I have watched him close- ly. The Anti - Corruption Commissioner is smart enough to walk in the footsteps of the black public intellectuals who contributed to the liberation of us as a people. At the start of the 20 th Century, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois were two of the sharpest black brains. Even though they disagreed philosophically on black liberation, these two fine gentlemen were never scared to share their thoughts in the public sphere. Marcus Mosiah Garvey, who came later, continued in this similar tradition. The Commissioner Francis Ben Kaifala Esq. delivering his Lecture Commissioner Francis Ben Kaifala Esq. responding to questions at the end of his Lecture. Paul A. Conteh Lecturer, Department of Sociology & Social Work Fourah Bay College Contd on pg 3