Dig hole, cover hole transactions affect Accountability and Transparency in Sierra Leone
The main idea behind the subject is from Deuteronomy 23 in the Bible and this forced me to shift from my intended title “The values of professional security governance”. However, this article will be out next week and the motivation behind that article is the lifting of arms and other sanctions imposed on Sierra Leone in 1998.
It is important for us as Sierra Leoneans to be aware of the strategic environment that we find ourselves in; what the cause of the war was and how we got to the bottom of the United Nations Index and titled a failed state. The whole idea of the Civil war in Sierra Leone started because of marginalisation, poorly paid civil servants, corrupt mineral contracts, corruption in the army/police, nepotism, long period of silence and dig hole cover hole policies and strategies.
In Sierra Leone, the Civil war is now over thanks to Britain but we now have a new war which is poverty, corruption and all the hot spots mentioned above as the causes of the civil war in 1991-2002. As Citizens we should not wait until 2012 before we start talking about the problems. Areas that need urgent reform include the Police which have refused to become a force for good, Civil servants continue to be paid poorly leading them to collaborate with the enemy rather than taking the enemy. Corruption in Sierra Leone will continue to undermine development and at the moment wasting money on propaganda rather than fighting the real enemy will not solve the problem.
The issue on corruption can only be solved by dealing with the root causes with new consultative strategy, free speech and the media campaigning against failed policies in order to deal with decay of corruption.
In Sierra Leone most people talk about good governance and pose as governance experts without dealing with two important terms –Accountability and Transparency together. Accountability is used to expand transparency and trustworthiness. It will show how an individual or government demonstrates how they have conducted their activities. The Open Government Initiative, Civil Society, media and citizens should demand that government officials justify what they have achieved from 2007 to date in order to help President Koroma to gain re-election and avoid the sanction of dismissal come 2012.
Transparency on the other hand is making conduct or business in a fashion that makes decisions, rules and other information visible from outside. Assets declaration should be made public in order to meet with accountability and transparency and prevent tension from the two terms.
Accountability without Transparency
In Sierra Leone we read about ministers giving illegal instructions to their accountants who are answerable to them but these instructions and activities are not available to the public at large or even reported to Parliamentary committees, Anti-Corruption Commission or head of the Public Service. I am not sure if it is the private sector model that was promised in 2007 that is in use as a model for the government to follow; in the private sector managers can be accountable for their work and decisions but certain trade secrets will not be made known to the public.
Transparency without Accountability
In the private sector business will file their accounts for anyone to see but that does not imply a duty to answer to the general public over a way in which decisions that may be of public concern. In Sierra Leone, this strategy has been implemented by the government wherein Audit Reports, Budgets are published that create the atmosphere of transparency in the sense of making corrupt dealings more likely to be exposed to the public. However, the corrupt officials will go unpunished if the government fails to prosecute.
Transparency can contribute to government accountability in perhaps a more indirect way by reducing the risk of unnoticed errors. It is difficult for the Anti-Corruption Commission to deal with corruption alone under its current strategy based on the knowledge gained in the Legal profession; where lawyers are often faced with limitations on transparency and accountability. Such as information that does not need to be shared between prosecution and defence; restrictions on sharing of information among witnesses.
Agenda for Change via policy development and implementation
Policy Advisers working on the Agenda for Change should research and brief President Koroma on strategic issues affecting the country especially issues relating to government income and expenditures. Redefine the role of audit, role of civil servants, and role of security forces by setting performance targets on the areas for improvement. Policy Advisers should not be appointed because of regional, tribal and political affiliations; these advisers should be experts and have a brief overview of the problems in Sierra Leone, their roles and strategies in order to progress in every area that they will be attached. Understanding the problems or environment will lead to an increase in the level of performance to the challenges of the environment.
Sierra Leone is not lacking educated individuals that can deal with the challenges like internal control, audit, fraud investigations, justice reform, educational reform and internal and external accountability that poses threat to development in Sierra Leone.
Anti-Corruption Commission and Auditors General Department
The ACC and Auditors General department should work together in setting up a Forensic Audit Unit that will be able to monitor and evaluate effectiveness of government activities, review asset declarations, and carry out intelligent audit processes. With intelligent audit processes, individuals will be investigated when they exceed government expenditure, and fail to complete contracts within the agreed time. I hope that the ministers that will be shown exit will have their asset declarations reviewed, and also it is over three years that some of them made their declarations.
By Dylan Sogie-Thomas, UK
The author is presently attending a course on Advanced Command and Staff Course-Conflict and the International system at the Joint Services Command and Staff ; as a Deployable Civilian Expert ( DFID/Stabilisation Unit) but is writing as a citizen of Sierra Leone not in his capacity as Deployable Civilian Expert.
The author Dylan Sogie-Thomas CFE, CertIA, CertIFR, PG Dip, ACCA Finalist is a student in Masters in Corporate Governance/Graduate ICSA at the London South Bank University United Kingdom. His research is titled An Overview of Corporate Governance, Accountability and Performance Management in Sierra Leone. sogiethomas@yahoo.com
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