A civil society coalition, National Consortium on Public Accountability (NCOPA), has faulted corruption surveys conducted by Institute of Governance Reform (IGR) and the Centre for Accountability and Rule of Law (CARL).
Development Diaries understands that the findings, which were published in September 2020, claimed that parliamentarians were among the most corrupt public servants in the country.
The figure from particularly the CARL report revealed that police, parliament and ministries were the most corrupt areas, with 83 percent of respondents saying that they believe that to a ‘large extent’ the force is the most corrupt state institution.
However, NCOPA said that Sierra Leone had over the years been flooded with reports that were not competent and credible.
NCOPA called on the statistics body in Sierra Leone to claim its space of producing credible survey reports.
Chairman of NCOPA, Robert Kargbo, claimed that the two reports were produced with the intention of tarnishing the image of the parliamentarians and the government at large in the fight against corruption.
‘We have done a comprehensive study on the reports, looking at the different analysis that was brought up, which though was a concern especially when they stated that state house and parliament were the most corrupt institution in the country’, Kargbo.
‘We appreciate their efforts in compiling the reports, but we believe that it is not properly coordinated. We believe that they did not do the right thing.
‘There was no proper coordination of the report and that it was done in haste. And I can tell you categorically clear that they did it out of malice. IGR and CARL did the report on malice basis’.
Kargbo called on the two organisations to recall their reports and apologise to the institutions mentioned in them within three weeks.
CARL and IGR have defended their reports, claiming that the data produced were independently gathered, analysed, and verified by experts and head of institutions.
Source: Politico SL
Photo source: Tim Evanson
