The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has on Tuesday 11th March 2025 engaged officials of the Ministry of Public Administration and Political Affairs (MoPAPA) on “Ethical Standard Compliance in the Civil Service.” This very important meeting was summoned by the Honourable Minister, Amara Kallon in the path to ensuring MoPAPA leads by example, in the public service architecture.
In his welcomed address, Minister Amara Kallon, recounted on President Bio’s pronouncement in transforming the Ministry which was then the Ministry of Political and Public Affairs (MPPA). He furthered by stating that such transformation has positioned the Ministry, providing political and technical leadership in reforming the public service architecture – as embedded in Pillar 5 of the 2024-2030 Medium-Term National Development (MTNDP).
Minister Kallon stressed that public service administration is one of the biggest sectors of governance and for the Ministry to make headway as the architect of public sector reforms, then the fight against corruption must be taken into consideration.
He furthered by informing that there are about eight (8) pillars that constitutes the strategic roadmap for reform in the public service, all committed to the fight against corruption.
“As a reformer, we should be seen as the embodiment of the values of the reforms we want to undertake and hence the meeting with the ACC, to be able to understand the ethics, processes and procedures in delivering services and goods for the citizens of Sierra Leone, Minister Amara Kallon underscored.
The Honourable Minister emphasized the need to raise awareness that public resources are for the citizens of Sierra Leone and not for a set of individuals.
In his presentation, Rashid Turay – Director, Prevention Department of the ACC disclosed that the meeting with MoPAPA has nothing to do with investigation but rather, to raise awareness on how to prevent corruption – identification of red flags, and also how to maintain ethics and integrity.
On How to Prevent Corruption, Director Rashid Turay informed that one should lead by example, declare conflict of interest, encourage and protect whistleblowers, make suggestion boxes, encourage internal and external auditing, develop institutional anticorruption policies, and develop codes of conducts, amongst others.
Director Turay enlightened that the Prevention Department at ACC is made up of 3 Units, namely; Systems and Process Review Unit – which deals with practices and procedures of MDAs; Policy and Ethics Unit – concerned with ethics in MDAs; and Monitoring and Compliance Unit – concerned with monitoring implementation of recommendations proffered by both the Systems and Policy Units.
The meeting with the ACC was a stepping stone in the right direction – considering the Ministry’s political and strategic leadership of revamping the public service architecture.
