December 18, 2017 By Ibrahim Tarawallie
ACC Commissioner Ade Macauley
Commissioner of Sierra Leone’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has stated that the country suffers from morality bankruptcy, starting from schools where pupils and parents pay money to have good grades.
Ady Macauley was speaking Friday (December 15) at the opening session of a workshop on ethics and integrity management organised by the commission’s Systems and Processes Review Department for public and civil servants.
The essence of the workshop, held at Santano House in Freetown, was to provide knowledge on ethical and integrity management issues to participants, drawn from ministries, department and agencies.
In his statement, Commissioner Macauley stressed the need for the country to work towards dealing with issues of morality and ethics.
According to him, some parents and guardians many a time feel happy when they pay a bribe for their children to pass in school irrespective of the consequences.
“Ethics and integrity are inter-linked. Preventing corruption through systems and processes review will be good for the country,” he said and urged participants to make good use of the training by cascading it to their colleagues.
Also speaking was Commissioner Augustine S. Tutu from the Public Service Commission, said that efficiency and effectiveness cannot be the hallmark of the public service without adequate discourse on ethics and integrity.
He said the commission has a code of conduct that prescribes ways employees should work and behave with punishment for any breach.
“Ethics is about moral principles of behaviour. Ethics and integrity are somehow interwoven,” he said.
Director, Systems and Processes Review Department at the ACC, Rashid Turay noted that ethical and integrity issues are a big challenge in the country.
Turay stated that even though ethical code of conduct has been developed in the public service, they are not being adhered to by employees.