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Deputy Director of Public Education and Outreach Department of the Anti-Corruption Commission, Abubakarr Turay has disclosed that the Commission has started rolling out sanctions against any public officer who failed to declare his income, assets and liabilities with the Commission.
Section 119(1) of the Anti-Corruption Act 2008 (as Amended in 2019), stated that, “Every public officer shall, within three months of becoming a public officer, deposit with the Commission a declaration of his income, assets and liabilities and thereafter in every two years that he is public officer, but not later than 31st March of that second year, deposit further declaration of his income; assets and liabilities and also while leaving office.”
The Public Officers required to declare their assets include persons in elective offices, persons appointed by the President, public officers in grade 7 and above, and public officers below grade 7 but with fiduciary (financial) responsibilities, such as bursars, procurement officers, storekeepers, etc.
According to Turay, the Statutory 31 March deadline had long expired but the Commissioner, Francis Ben Kaifala, pursuant to Section 119(4) of the Anti-Corruption Act 2008, extended the deadline to 30th April, 2024, which had also elapsed.
“Even after that extension, the Commission decided to leave the assets declaration portal open for those required by law to declare their assets, and I can say the portal is still open up to this point,” Mr Turay said. He however said that the Commission, consistent with the provisions of the Act, has started sending out notices to those public officers who have not yet declared their assets with the Commission up to this date. Section 122A (1) of the Anti- Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2019 provides that “A public officer who, without reasonable cause, fails to submit his/her Assets Declaration Form or knowingly records false, inaccurate or misleading information in the declarationı form shall, in addition to any other penalty imposed under this Act.”
“We had introduced online declaration to make the exercise easy for public officers. All declarations should now be done online through the Commission’s website.
The digitalization process is good but not all of us can easily access the Portal due to lack of knowledge of its use or how to go about it. I filled the first page which l consider as a cover page and I was directed to proceed to the main document but onto date l am unable to do so thus, l have decided to travel to Sierra Leone and do it manually at the end of August. My computer skill is average so I am suggesting that for those public officials like military and police who are outside the country,
be given time to the the end of their mission with either AU or UN