Are we really serious about the fight against corruption?
A couple of days ago, I was at a workshop organized by the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) on Good Governance: issues and challenges in corruption control for senior policy makers at the Bintumani Hotel in Freetown. The issue of poor conditions of service came out clearly as a conduit for people to indulge in corrupt practices. But the Commissioner had a contrary view.
He categorically asserted that killer wages are not a defense to corruption. Morally, culturally, socially, one might be tempted to agree with Joseph Kamara but economically I beg to differ. Economic hardship forces people to do the undesirable because they need to make ends meet. I have a strong conviction that people will rather indulge in corruption than die from hunger and starvation. Can you imagine in this day and age, civil servants in Sierra Leone are still paid take-home salaries that cannot take them home?
If deplorable salaries cannot be justified for corruption, why are the conditions of service of ACC workers so healthy? Definitely it is because healthy wages serve as a deterrent to graft. Corruption can be mitigated if we are really serious about the negative effects it causes on the socio-economic and political development of Sierra Leone. But from the look of things, we are yet to eliminate this scourge from our midst.
Regrettably, I have observed with dismay that by some unspoken societal consensus, a generalized negativity towards integrity persistently links corruption to a way of life. This is wrong in every sense of the word. If corruption is a way of life anywhere in the world, Sierra Leone must be an exception. The Anti-Graft Agency has done series of researches on the causes of corruption but let me submit here that much needs to be done to efficiently and effectively discourage the practice.
One of the surest ways to deter corruption is to effect custodian sentences. Over the years, alternative sentences have yielded less desirable fruits, if anything they have succeeded in cultivating a culture of amassing ill-gotten wealth at the expense of the masses. As a matter of fact, when convicted the opportunity cost of going through the harsh realities at Pademba Road Prison is to repay some of the proceeds of corruption. Needles to say that if this trend continues then corruption would not only be systemic but also endemic, as no one will be incarcerated for their indulgence in corruption.
Until the judges presiding over ACC cases start passing custodian sentences, until convicted Ministers or Heads of Department start spending the rest of their lives or better still the number of years proportional to the crime committed in prison, we should not claim seriousness in the war against graft.
To conclude this piece without recommending for a complete overhaul of the conditions of service of civil servants is tantamount to hitting the head against a stone wall. This is the first step in solving this deadlock. Remember: THERE IS NO PAIN WORSE THAN LIVING IN PENURY WHILST YOUR COMPATRIOTS LIVE IN AFFLUENCE.
By Mohamed Faray Kargbo
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