By Stephen V. Lansana
The Commissioner of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on Wednesday, January 24, 2024, complained about delay in delivering judgments on corruption cases.
Francis Ben Kaifala expressed deep grief during a press conference held at its ACC headquarters in Freetown.
The purpose of the news conference was to update the press on the Le 8.6 billion that was recovered from the Principal Accountant of the Accountant General’s Department (AGD), John Ellie and six other senior government officials in the Accountant General’s Department, Ministry of Finance (MoF) and the Sierra Leone Road Authority (SLRA).
The names of those who refunded the stolen money include Jacob Tenga Sessie, Deputy Director of Budget of MoF; Emmanuel Smart, Accounting Officer of SLRA; Starlyn Kemoh, Accountant of AGD; Ibrahim Bangura, Senior Accountant of AGD; Joseph Johnson, Accountant of AGD; John Ellie, Principal Accountant of AGD; and Philip Yomba, Senior Accountant of AGD.
Speaking on the number of cases in court, the ACC Boss said that they have several cases in court, but the Judiciary is slow to deliver judgments. He noted that just like the ACC, the Judiciary may have capacity problem which might be delaying the delivering of judgments.
“So, we understand with them (Judiciary), but I can tell you that our cases have not been moving as fast as we want,” he said. “We are not getting judgments as we should.”
He disclosed that, “as I explained yesterday at the State press conference, we [ACC] are like a processing plants, the judiciary is at the up-end and we are at the lower-end, and those who understand finance and management understand what happen when the upper-end is not moving faster – there will be a slow-down in the system.”
“We are not getting judgment faster. If we are not getting judgment fast enough, then what is the point of sending cases to court?
He said that the Commission has held meetings with the Judiciary and written letters to them, emphasizing that they have tried to understand with them why judgments on ACC cases are not coming fast enough because they themselves are constraint sometimes.
He pointed out that sometimes, the ACC cannot understand why they don’t give judgments.
He said that he can’t understand why a judge will hold on to a corruption file after the case has been closed one year ago.
He explained that last year, he sent a letter to the former Chief Justice Desmond Babatunde Edwards explaining the delay in cases, and the (Chief Justice) called a meeting of judges where he spoke about the issue.
The Commissioner added that at one point, he also sent senior staff at the Commission to each of the judges handling corruption cases to know when they would deliver judgments.
“I am very worried because these cases determined our standing in the international rankings,” he said, adding that when doing rankings on corruption, the international communities will check how many convictions that Sierra Leone has in 2023.
He disclosed that they had only two judgments in the entire 2023, adding that the delivering of judgments on corruption cases is not in ACC’s control.
He disclosed that Sierra Leoneans are also worried about why people are not jailed for corruption, pointing out that at the beginning of ACC investigation, they have the mandate to arrest people and detain them for ten days, but that is all they could do, adding that after the ten days they charge cases to court.
He said that it is the court that imposes custodian sentence for corruption cases.
He noted that the judges are not willing to give custodian sentences, noting that even the Judges who give custodian sentences to accused persons, their lawyers will appeal and go to the Court of Appeal and the court will grant bail.
Commissioner Kaifala said that he wants people to be held for corruption cases.
“In fact, that is why I came here to make sure that everybody who commits corruption will be locked up forever,” he said. “But can I do it myself, I cannot.”
“Our cases are not moving fast enough. That is why we sometimes exercise options like recovering of the stolen funds,” he said.