That it is widely observed that extortion is rapidly becoming a norm, though it is not a law in in Sierra Leone, it might thus not be legitimate but it is extensively practiced in the country’s public and private sector players in the name of doing businesses in diverse sectors.
Extortion is illegitimately imposed on people mostly by law enforcement agency workers, who urge probable offenders to redeem themselves by ways of paying money to get off the hook of the laws. Apart from those in the security and law enforcement sectors, extortion is also practiced by public office holders from top to bottom; against investors, businesses and people seeking public service utilities. Those refusing to be extorted will be deprived of having a given public service utility. So in Sierra Leone, no matter one’s level of awareness, one is always urged to be extorted or one’s services would be stalled on the shelves of MDAs for reasons best known to staffers of the MDA in question.
Extortions are always done by forcefully subjecting vulnerable people with little knowledge of corruption to the illegal act, that is the forceful payments of money to either the police or any other security personnel of public sector worker as they case may be. It is not new in Sierra Leone, and it cuts across with most people opting for quick fixes in their businesses almost getting used to it by the tick of the clock.
It is a systemic corrupt culture being practised in the public and the private sectors. Extortion is everywhere in Sierra Leone, with different names depending on the situation and the MDA one finds him/herself. Additionally, extortion is an illegal action of obtaining money, property, or anything of value by using threats of violence or public shaming.
Extortion does not have to be intentional and can be done by legal means. Extortion can be defined as protection schemes. In law, extortion is a crime that involves using threats or coercion to obtain something of value from someone. It can involve threats of violence, damage to property, or reputational harm.
The act of extorting money and property from vulnerable people, including drivers, commercial motor bike riders, public and private school pupils, university students, private businesses, and others is disgraceful, unacceptable and alarming. Imagine a foreign investor visiting the country for the very first time to experience extortion from a public or private sector worker for doing business. How would that visitor think of Sierra Leoneans and end up rating the people and the businesses of the public sector management and government’s efforts in fighting corruption? Seriously or effective? No, it will even be forever embarrassing for government and the people. So sincere efforts must be exerted by giant duty bearers in tackling the age old illicit culture of extortion that is rapidly eating into the fabric of the Sierra Leonean society.
Though it is forcefully done as if it forms major aspects of laws of the land, extortion is tantamount to receiving and or taking bribe, which in law is an indictable corrupt act. Extortion is considered wrong and unacceptable especially in the spheres of public and private sector operations. It should be loudly frowned at in society as it fundamentally contributes to compromises undertaken by corrupt duty bearers for personal gains at the detriment of the country.
All of the highlighted meanings are very much apt to the Sierra Leone situation where people in positions of authority are always using their status to extort from their victims, which is completely unacceptable according to the laws of the land. Thus, considering the illegitimacy of the act, it must be discouraged in society.
Moreover, extortion is responsible for a good number of problems affecting effective service delivery in both public and private sector. For instance, in situation wherein a truck load with unidentified luggage is stopped at night or even in broad day light at specific checkpoints along public highways leading to Freetown, compromise and extortion are the only two means the security forces would use and allow such vehicle to pass through without checking properly to ascertain the exact content of the luggage. A reason for such being those charged with tasks of manning security at that particular location have extorted from the owner of the luggage, the driver, allowing the vehicle to cross and get away with whatever being carried into the country. Be it a security risk or not, they hardly care about the implications. All they are concerned about is what is being extorted from road the users.
In the areas of other private – public sector works, say for example schools and universities, weak students are urged to be extorted by their lecturers and teachers by way of requesting money from them whenever they fail exams. Most of these weak students prefer sex for grades or pay money to lecturers so that they can be offered passing grades.
At Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), professionalism is totally out of context. Here service deliveries are pegged to mere payments of money to civil servants before they attempt even doing their official job for which they are paid from taxpayers and Consolidated Revenue Fund. Failure to comply with the norms of extortion at MDAs, businesses would certainly be delayed or stalled, a reason clients are almost always forced to be extorted by public sector workers with impunity.
Being the order of day, extortion has eaten deeply into the fabric of the society, to the peak that senior public servants are in the habit of posting their subordinates to duty stations where they can in turn report back with proceeds of their extorted acts. Such is also not new in the Sierra Leone Police Service, as junior personnel are deployed at locations such as traffic and custom posts to extort money for their superiors. A case in point is extorting from timber trucks entering Freetown by police officers for the Regional Commander- East.
To address the problems of extortions in private and public sector work spaces, government and its partners should map out a legal framework and harmonized salary scales, enhance public awareness on the dangers of extortions, and by abiding by the code of ethics of particularly the civil service, coupled with the pride of upholding self-esteem in both public and private sectors to make extortion a thing of the past.
