By Aiah Pengusa Momodu Sourie, Head of Outreach Unit, ACC
The Anti-Corruption Commission of Sierra Leone was established by an Act of Parliament in 2000, before the civil war in the country officially ended on 18 January 2002. Primarily, the Commission is mandated to prevent, investigate and prosecute every alleged act of corruption, with the aim to sanitize the governance of the country’s public institutions to work effectively and efficiently. An independent agency, it has – despite many hiccups and hurdles – notched up remarkable achievements and gained both national and international admiration. This year, the Commission is a quarter century old and celebrating for the purpose of the occasion few personalities who have worked with or for it share their in-depth views on the journey thus far.
However, while the Commission’s challenges and achievements over these twenty-five years described here are not exhaustive, they unravel a clear portrait of how a state institution, given competent and patriotic leadership, can become an enviable colossus of national integrity and a beacon of hope for a nation that has seen more woes than wins since independence in April 1961.
Without a dedicated staff, the Commission could not have surmounted its teething challenges – and probably would not have lasted this long. However, it is surprising to note that, in spite of its ambitious goal, the agency did not own an office space to carry out its operations, when founded. James Franklyn Kayanko, who was appointed as the first Director of Investigations in the toddling years of the Commission, said ‘With limited resources, we started with no office and we had a skeleton staff. We would temporarily use my office at the police headquarters to work.’
Subsequently, the ACC moved and was housed on Wesley Street in the western part of Freetown for about a year. Later, in 2001, the Cathedral House on Gloucester Street in central Freetown was rented to accommodate the Commission. Similarly, the regional offices of the Commission were in rented properties, and the situation has remained the same to date except in Kenema and Makeni where it prides itself on owning an office in each of the cities. But it did not take long for a major breakthrough to occur.
The construction of the ACC’s headquarters in Freetown was a solid milestone. The project started in 2014 but was abandoned before it was later completed with largely domestic funds and grandly inaugurated in 2023 under the current administration of Francis Ben Kaifala. Named Integrity House, the edifice prominently sits on Tower Hill approximately between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Sierra Leone’s House of Parliament. Haja Marie Bob Kanneh, a civil society activist and a former ACC Board member had this to say in an interview: ‘The ACC Integrity House is a real legacy.’
Furthermore, the need for requisite personnel became more pressing, as Mr. Kayanko recounted that the administration of the Commission travelled the length and breadth of the country in search of experienced retired police officers to serve in the Commission’s Investigations Department. He confessed that this was a hard drive recalling that many people who were contacted to fill the positions did not show interest – most likely because they did not understand the purpose of the Commission.
One may surmise that this lack of ‘understanding’ was due to the fact that the years preceding the civil conflict were characterized by endemic corruption which, in effect, created dysfunctional state institutions and public disillusionment. Consequently, founding an institution to cleanse the narrative and restore the dignity of public bodies in the country was for most people nothing more than a mirage.
In fact, Hon. Ibrahim Ben Kargbo, when interviewed, made salient points concerning those who were ambivalent about the survival, let only the success of the Commission. As president of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists, he was one of the advisers to Late President Ahmed Tejan Kabba during whose regime the Commission came into being. He would later serve as senior cabinet minister in the Ernest Bai Koroma government. The Hon noted that some dyed-in-the-wool critics thought the ACC would not see the light of day after President Kabba’s tenure – certain politicians even wished the Commission would die in its embryo. ‘But luckily for us it did not die and successive governments decided that the ACC was a useful instrument for national development.’
But this did not mean that the dust had settled. While the Commission showed visible signs of strength to survive, there came essays to tacitly control the institution from the political class. Certain politicians – and other notable public figures – were subtly but viciously averse to the aspirations of the Commission and would find all means possible to intimate its commissioners – to straitjacket them in delivering on the mandate of the Commission, to hijack the mandate and weaponize it to their advantage particularly during the eras of Commissioners Val Collier (2000-2005) and Abdul Tejan Cole (2007-2010). Despite the threats, these two gladiators of integrity and national interest, being steadfastly committed to the vision of the Commission, would resign rather than succumb to the vagaries of politics.
Although the Commission grew stronger as time elapsed, its maiden Act of 2000 itself had major deficits. For example, it had a limited range of offences – not more than nine – and what constituted a corruption offence for prosecution sat out of its remit; corruption cases were then determined, according to Mr. Kayanko, by the Law Officials Department under the Attorney General and Minister of Justice. Consequently, delayed justice for and on behalf of the citizens was a direct corollary of such legal oversight. Thus, the Commission was derogatorily named ‘a toothless bulldog’ by many skeptics. However, the 2008 Anti-Corruption Act introduced new frontiers particularly as regards increased offences and powers for the Commission to prosecute its cases in the High Court without having to go through the Attorney General again – but the creation of a special division within the court for this instrumental novelty was yet inconceivable.
As a major achievement in the last seven of the Commission’s 25 years, the 2008 Anti-Corruption Act (ACA) was amended in 2019 introducing far more offences and stiffer penalties. This was one year after Francis Ben Kaifala became the sixth commissioner of the Commission in 2018. For example, under the Amendment Act, the Commissioner may rescind any contract that he deems not to be in the interest of Sierra Leoneans. The Act also criminalises academic malpractice and non-compliance with declaration of assets, income and liability for public officers at grade 7 and above, and below if the officers have fiduciary responsibility; and further provides for trials of accused persons in absentia, among other groundbreaking legal provisions. The new Act according to Commissioner Francis Ben Kaifala gave ‘more teeth to the Commission, and now nobody refers to it as a toothless bulldog anymore.’
Mr Kayanko encapsulates these legal vaults when he remarked: ‘There are greater punishments in the new Act than in the old one.’ These ‘greater punishments’ have seen increased fair and expeditious applications particularly with the establishment of the special division within the High Court in April 2019, through a constitutional instrument to litigate corruption cases. This helped the Commission secured an unprecedented 90% conviction rate since, while it did not lose sight of its flagship strategy – the prevention of corruption.
Nevertheless, the Commission’s Non-Conviction Asset-Based Recovery mechanism, another brainchild of Commissioner Kaifala, has proven to be a reliable prototype for anti-corruption institutions in several countries within the West African sub-region. Haja Mary Bob Kandeh described it as ‘a notable achievement’ in the Commission’s twenty-five years combating public sector malfeasance aggressively.
Unarguably, for twenty-five years the ACC has showed incredible commitment to promoting integrity, transparency, and accountability in the country’s public bodies. The journey has been chequered – with daunting challenges but achievements that will eternally remain in the annals of history as testament to Sierra Leone’s collective resolve to win the fight against corruption. Commissioner Kaifala himself said in an interview, ‘It has been an amazing journey. We have gone through it, and I believe we have come out stronger and better, particularly in nearly eight years ago. I profoundly thank our partners, the government, present and former staff of the Commission, present and former Board members of the Commission, the people of Sierra Leone, and everyone else who contributed towards the campaign against corruption in those twenty-five years.’
Commissioner Kaifala, affectionately known as the ‘People’s Commissioner’, concluded his statement by acknowledging that President Julius Maada Bio has been the major factor behind the stellar performance of the Commission for close to eight years now. ‘The President believes in the fight against corruption and he has always given me his support when needed.’ But it will remain anyone’s speculation whether the Commission will ever enjoy this uncommon presidential will and support after Commissioner Kaifala and President Bio. Happy Silver Jubilee!
