ACC Public Relations Office: Sierra Leone Telegraph: 25 January 2022:
Sierra Leone has again, for the third time in three years, progressed upwards in Transparency International’s Global Corruption Country Rankings, moving from 117 in 2020 to 115 out of 180 countries surveyed in the 2021 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (TI-CPI).
The country also increases its 2020 score of thirty-three (33) to thirty-four (34) in 2021, which is again above the sub-Saharan average, and the highest the country has ever recorded since the CPI rankings began.
In three years consistently, Sierra Leone has moved fifteen (15) places upwards on the CPI, from 129 in 2018 to 115 in 2021. Sierra Leone was ranked at 130 in 2017.
The 2021 CPI, released on Tuesday, 25th January 2022, reveals that Sierra Leone continues to make remarkable progress in the World’s most respected corruption watchdog’s assessment and rankings and now leads sixty-four (64) countries in the global campaign against corruption, including thirty-two (32) African countries, among which are; Kenya, Guinea, Liberia, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, Zambia, Mozambique and Egypt. (Photo below: ACC Czar – Francis Ben kaifala).
This year’s Report reveals that “corruption levels have stagnated worldwide. Over the last decade and this year 27 countries are at historic lows in their CPI score”. Nonetheless, Sierra Leone performed better than the Average Score in Sub-Saharan Africa for the second year, 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, in four years, Sierra Leone has consistently increased its score in the ‘Control of Corruption’ Indicator in the Millennium Challenge Corporation Scorecard, moving from Forty-Nine percent (49%) in 2017, to Eighty-Three percent (83%) in 2021, making a Thirty-Four percentage (34%) upwards.
Similar exponential jumps have been recorded in other respected global corruption measurement institutions like Afrobarometer which confirmed that corruption prevalence has considerably reduced from 70% in 2015 to a latest low of 40% in 2020.
In light of the foregoing, the Commission wishes to reassure all Sierra Leoneans of its continued and consistent determination to ensure the country continues to perform favourably in National, Sub-regional, Regional, and Global anti-corruption governance indices.
There is nothing to celebrate about being ranked at 117 out of 180 countries in the Global corruption index. When our country starts appearing in single figures ranking, then we will have something to celebrate. The effects of which we will see in our public services sector deliveries. At the moment, we are not aiming to land a man in the moon, or turning Kabala to the Vegas of Sierra Leone. we just want corruption to end and work on developments programmes that delivers for what every citizens of a nation is entitled to. Like good social care for the old and young. Less deaths in women trying to give birth, no infants mortality, good roads and bridges, electricity for all, increase in the quality of life of ordinary citizens, increase in agricultural outputs, employment opportunities available to graduates youth , good salaries paid on time to public sector workers that they can live on and support their families, not poverty pay.
Quality of housing,Susan Bay and Kroo Bay comes to mind, where children, dogs, rats, and pigs compete for food in the rubbish dumps. Access to Education for all , food sufficiency, a free press, equal opportunities for everyone. Respect for our constitution and the rule of law, equality before the law, not just to the few but the many, address the issues of prisoners denied access to swift justice. Tackle the corruption in the police service, public officials, a strong and help promote a strong and vibrant opposition that holds the government of the day to account. Access to healthcare, and above all eles, ordinary citizens access to their elected officials.
Until we starts seeing all of the above changes in our country up and running and we tackle the cancer of corruption in government and public services bodies that continues to hamper our country’s future economic growth there is no way we can look at this report and give Ben Kalifah the ACC commissioner, and the Bio government the vote of confidence they are seeking from the Sierra Leonean public . It just wouldn’t wash. Under Bio, we are lurching from one crisis to the other. In this report, comparing us to countries in sub-saharan Africa especially our neighbours that are covered by the Sahara desert, and can’t boasts of having the same human and natural resources our country is blessed with, is not only misleading but an insult to the intelligence of all Sierra Leoneans. We know the score. This Global international perception corruption index will just gives us false hope that the Bio government and some of his ministers that are caught in knee-deep corruption allegations, will now use this report as an indication that actually some of this corruption allegations are all being blown out of proportion or a storm in a tea cup. The reality of life in Bio’s Sierra Leone tells a different story.
As long as the APC exists in Sierra Leone, corruption will never go away. But for now, we say paopa Salone go betteh.
Keep it up Mr Ben, we are no doubt in you Sierra Leone must be a better place to live on Earth.