ACC Asset Declaration Workshop Kicks-Off

Concord Times (Freetown)

Ibrahim Tarawallie

15 June 2011

Freetown — With funds from the World Bank, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday commenced a three-day workshop on improving effectiveness of Asset Declaration System for its staff, especially district coordinators and other key institutions like the National Revenue Authority (NRA) and the Bank of Sierras Leone, among others. The workshop, hosted at the Hill Valley Hotel in Freetown, is also expected to give participants in-depth knowledge about the asset declaration system of the ACC and how it works.

ACC’s Head of Professional Standards/Asset Declaration Management Unit, Saidu Dumbuya, informed participants that Section 119 (Sub-section 1 & 2) of the Anti-Corruption Commission Act states clearly that every public officer must declare their assets, income and liabilities within three months of becoming an officer.

“The Act has made it clear. We are just enforcing it,” he affirmed.

Mr. Dumbuya highlighted the distribution of forms, submissions, verification of submissions for completeness and inconsistencies and acknowledgement slip and number issued to the individual declaring his assets as some of the procedures involved.

“We have not been able to get up to 10,000 public officers to declare [their assets] in Freetown even though the deadline was extended to May 30 because of the anniversary celebrations,” he revealed.

Dumbuya opined that they are faced with many challenges, including limited resources, office space, problems of content verification, compliance, training for staff and those that are declaring and information management, among others as they try to carry out their work more effectively and efficiently.

World Bank representative, Cari Votava, maintained that no country in the world has a perfect system of asset disclosure, noting, “The system is not the same in every country.”

She pointed out that Sierra Leone has a lot of attention from donors because things are working and that the fight against corruption is improving as compared to other countries.

ACC’s Head of Systems and Processes Review Department, Neneh Daboh, implored all participants to make good use of the training, noting that the presenters have all the required materials to give them.

AllAfrica – All the Time