The Vicious Circle of Corruption
In spite of the tremendous efforts applied by the Anti-Corruption (ACC) to drastically minimize corruption in Sierra Leone, malaise continues unabated, thereby rendering the ACC efforts futile. The recent corruption scandal surrounding the procurement of our hundred buses is a very clear indication that our leaders, especially, are not yet prepared to get away from corrupt practices.
Corruption is not just about embezzling state funds, but even the act of procuring nation assets without going through the right procedure is tantamount to naked corruption for which the perpetrator must be penalized.
The country seems to be caught up in a vicious circle of corruption perpetrated at all levels of our society, from the highest to the lowest levels. But the most interesting aspect of the ugly situation is that much of the funds generated by corrupt practices of one set of people end up in the pocket of another set of corrupt people.
When a corrupt minister embezzles a huge sum of state money via corrupt procurement, he is sure to loss part of that of that money to a corrupt principal who extra-charge that minister to admit his son or daughter in his school; that corrupt minister will definitely loss a considerable portion of that money to a corrupt medical doctor who will prescribe fake drugs for the minister and give him an exorbitant bill; that corrupt minister is sure to loss part of the embezzled fund to his corrupt driver who will tell the minister he needs 70 liters of fuel to take him to Bo when in reality he needs only 40 liters; that corrupt minister will part with some of the stolen state money to the corrupt tailor who will tell the minister the four yards gara material to sew his gown cost 200.000 Leones when the actual cost is 100.000; that minister will surely loss part of the looted funds to the corrupt lecturer who will always ask the minister’s son or daughter to compulsorily buy his expensive but haphazardly written pamphlet and to the fitter who will remove the vital part of the minister’s vehicle and sell it back to him at cut-throat cost and so on.
We are, indeed, caught up in a vicious circle of corruption where the corrupt have become the non-corrupt and economically successful people and the non-corrupt have become the corrupt and economically-impotent people regarded as outcasts. We are living in a country where corruption has become a way of, a long established tradition that has transcended several political generations and there is yet no sign that it will minimize. Corruption has become the backbone of the economy of many people who have become maggots who cannot survive without filth.
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