The fight against public sector corruption at government’s ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) has taken centre stage in the media.
There is a fight going on between an arm of government and a commission of government established by the same branch of government. The fight is akin to a son fighting a father for supremacy in the home.
The fight involves the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the House of Parliament headed by the Deputy Speaker of the law making House and on the other hand, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
It must be categorically stated here that the ACC was established by an Act of Parliament after Members of Parliament (MPs) voted in the interest of the public or people for its establishment.
At the centre of this public row is the publically or government owned Sierra Leone Commercial Bank. The bank’s managing director, Yusufu Abdul Silla, is at the centre of this fight for his purchasing of 15 vehicles for the bank and one for his official use.
While this action of purchasing machines and other equipment is a daily occurrence in public and private businesses, the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank – SLCB Managing Director is being taken to task for spending $140,000 on his personal vehicle to basically drive to work and other official duties and functions.
The bank’s executives are presently being queried by the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Parliament that is tasked to look into how public or government workers spent or handled money entrusted to them to do the people’s or government’s work.
The issues arose in the 2022 Auditor General’s Report into how people in government ministries, departments and agencies spent government money during the 2022 financial year.
It must be noted here that the Auditor General’s reports are the exclusive property of the House of Parliament, whose PAC is the only institution that can summons government workers to give an account of how and why they spent the people’s money as stated in the Audit Service Sierra Leone report. The Auditor General is the Parliament’s investigator into how government workers spent the people’s money.
Based on instructions from the House, the commission established by an Act of the House of Parliament, the Anti-Corruption Commission, can take public workers found wanting to the court of law for prosecution.
On the other hand, the PAC in its official capacity has the power of a High Court or Supreme Court of the land and can send anyone they deemed fit directly to jail as if a judge or justice had sentenced that individual. The PAC can even summons the Commissioner of the Anti-Corruption Commission and if they deemed it fit can even have him jailed for whatever the offence.
Therefore in this battle that is being fought in the media devoid of a press release from the Anti-Corruption Commission that they have cleared the Managing Director of the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank of all allegations of corruption in the purchasing of the aforementioned vehicles while the PAC was not yet done with the query, according to legal luminaries, is an act of usurpation by the ACC against the PAC that has the sole right to make such an exoneration.
‘By right this issue is embarrassing. It would appear that while the PAC is trying to get to the bottom of corrupt practices in government ministries, departments and agencies, the ACC is seemingly trying to acquit people thereby confusing and frustrating the anticorruption fight. The ACC is like a child of the PAC and in any house the father is the supreme authority although the child also has his or her rights. The child will have his or her say but the father will always have his way.’
‘The ACC can say they don’t have enough to prosecute someone but it does not mean that that individual is not guilty or complicit in corrupt practices. As long as you have been questioned in the Auditor General’s reports you have a case to answer, which is why the PAC would summon you to give that account and if they feel they can have you jailed. The ACC in its official capacity cannot jail anyone. They are not a branch of government. So in this fight between the PAC and ACC, the ACC should back off because if they don’t they can be summoned to the House and find themselves in jail. The ACC should allow the PAC to expose corrupt people for the way the spent the public purse. Corruption has eaten into every fabric of our society so the fight is to save the very soul of our government,’ said a well-known and respected barrister.
Meanwhile, the battle continues in the media between the PAC and the ACC, with the Managing Director of the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank seemingly getting away with his actions against the state and people. How this public spat ends is entirely up to the PAC that has the power, even over the fate of the ACC and the SLCB Managing Director.
