Anti-Corruption Commission Presents Five-Year Strategic Plan

The Director of Prevention and Sensitisation in the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Mrs. Neneh Daboh, has officially presented copies of the ACC's five-year Strategic Plan to President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah at a brief ceremony held at the Hill Station Lodge Monday 12 January, 2004.

According to the ACC's Commissioner, Val Collier, the conclusion of the first phase of support to the Anti Corruption Commission in early 2003, saw the need for a review of the general development of the Commission, an assignment undertaken jointly by the Government of Sierra Leone, ACC and the British Department for International Development (DFID). The process which commenced in November 2002 embodied a range of recommendations about the immediate development of the commission and the need for the preparation of a Strategic Plan to guide the commission's future growth and operations.

Mr. Collier indicated that the existence of the Strategic Plan and the general state of progress in anti-corruption activity in Sierra Leone made it opportune for DFID to design a second phase of institutional capacity development and support for the commission and possibly for wider coverage and developments in anti-corruption work in the country involving the Anti-Corruption Commission Coalition and a National Anti-Corruption Strategy. He was delighted to note that that exercise had now been satisfactorily completed through extensive cooperation between the ACC and DFID.

The Strategic Plan presented, in the words of Mr. Collier is "our collective attempt to formulate a forward-looking strategy for the organization of the ACC in order for it to meet the socio-economic and political challenges posed by the current times and to identify and determine the role that it will play in partnership with other national institutions in combating corruption".

Commissioner Collier quoted President Kabbah, who once said: "Corruption is a vicious enemy of our society… If this country is to develop, the culture of impunity that has become so entrenched in our society must be made a thing of the past. Corruption has to be eliminated." He said the ACC continued to remain heartened by "that very bold and decisive assertion", which had served as a morale booster in their continuing campaign against corruption and impunity. "We are also heartened by Your Excellency's personal commitment to the cause of fighting corruption at all levels of our society, both in the public and private sectors, bearing uppermost in mind the need to steadfastly maintain a zero tolerance for corruption," Collier said, in a statement preceding the presentation.

Receiving the documents, President Kabbah expressed gratitude to the British Government for their support in setting up his brainchild - the Anti Corruption Commission. He observed that the setting up of any oversight institution such as the ACC was not an easy job, pointing to the numerous roadblocks usually encountered in the process. In this regard, he congratulated both the foreign donors and local managers who had worked hard in surmounting difficult obstacles.

He further observed that in the past, it was taboo to mention the word 'corruption', whereas today everybody, including school children, clergymen, public officials talks about its negative impact on the country's developmental aspirations. "That awareness in itself is an achievement," the Head of State said, adding that musicians have also joined the bandwagon in sending anti-corruption messages across.

He promised to carefully study the documents, for as he put it, he would like it to be one of the most useful legacies he would be leaving behind at the end of his current and final term in office. He thus appealed for all to maintain the present level of interest shown "so that at the end of the road we all could look back and say 'yes we have achieved something".

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