By Kadiatu Sankoh
On Friday 8th December 2023, Africa Global logistics (AGL) formally Bollore Transport and Logistics, commemorated the International Anti-Corruption day at the Freetown Terminal, Water quay, Freetown.
Speaking at the Event, Gassimu Fofana, Head of Communications AGL, welcomed everyone to the ceremony, adding that this Year happens to the 20th Anniversary Since the UN’s declaration of the 9th December as Anti-Corruption Day, adding that this occasion holds profound significance to the development of the country, reminding all that collective commitment to foster transparency, integrity and accountability in society is needed.
General Manager of AGL, Maroun Abi-Aad, in his statement, said that at AGL Sierra Leone and globally, they are committed to upholding the highest standards of integrity and ethics, furthering that they take pride in strict adherence to the fight against corruption and ensure that their code of conduct, policies and regulations are respected at all times. He furthered that they frown at all forms of corruption and influence peddling and actively work towards preventing any form of sponsorship towards illegal activities, stressing that together they stand against corruption and strive towards a transparent and ethical business environment.
Speaking on behalf of the Anti-Corruption Commission, Abubakarr Turay, Deputy Director of Public Education and Outreach, stated that the ACC is observing this year’s International Anti-Corruption Day with the Theme “A United Health Walk Again Corruption for a better Sierra Leone”, adding that the Commission and its partners are matching from Cotton Tree in Freetown, the Capital of Sierra Leone, to Montana Car park, where the Deputy Commissioner will be making his statement. He Furthered that the Global Theme for these Year’s celebration is: “Uniting the world against Corruption”. This comes exactly 20 years after the Adoption of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC). According to the UN “the convention covers five main areas; Preventive measures, Criminalization and Law Enforcement, International Cooperation, Asset recovery and technical Assistance and information exchange. The Convention covers many different forms of corruption, such as bribery, trading in influence, abuse of functions and various acts of corruption in private sector.
In ensuring a robust fight against corruption, The Anti-Corruption Commission often employs a three prong approach in the fight against corruption, which includes the Public Education that is to educate the public on dangers of corruption and benefit of its eradication, and to ensure and foster public support in combating corruption, and in doing so, the commission usually conducts public education and Outreach campaigns across all regions and districts of Sierra Leone, as these have helped citizens greatly.
Another is the prevention approach to fight against corruption: that is to examine the practice of public bodies in order to facilitate the discovery of corrupt practices or acts of corruption and secure revision of those practices and procedures, which in the opinion of the commission, amount to corruption. This involves the conduct of systems and processes review of Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government. This is to eliminate system weak losses and help strengthen these institutions.
The last approach is the enforcement; which involves intelligence gathering, investigation and prosecution or indictment of persons suspected of committing acts of corruption.
He Furthered that what the ACC will like to see is concrete steps taken by private sector institutions to address corruption in their institutions by addressing issues like bribery, conflict of interest, bid rigging, receiving gifts for a corrupt purpose and other acts of corruption. The Commission would like to see things like assets declaration at institutional level, private sector should have gift registers, institute other Anti-Corruption policies etc.
He ended up wishing everyone a very memorable International Anti-Corruption celebration.