The Commissioner for the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Francis Ben Kaifala bade farewell to the commissioner’s office at the commission as the first five year mandate has shutdown.

He explained and expressed some good tidings and the development landmarks he secured to help the nation retained many of the resources carted away by government officials.

His statement read thus;

“Today, I finally packed out of the Commissioner’s Office at Gloucester Street, which I called home for close to 5 years in order to finalize the MOVEMENT of all ACC staff into the newly constructed ULTRA-MODERN fit-for-purpose ACC OFFICES at Tower Hill. It was the last office to move!

This office was good to me. In this small office I worked with my team to see ACC and Sierra Leone break all records in indexes on the fight against corruption globally. In this office strategies were made, tactics deployed and results attained and reviewed. It was a WAR ROOM! In this office history was made on all fronts. From this office we sold Sierra Leone’s image and brand of fighting corruption and the World bought-in with admiration. This small office became the greatest War room ever designed in the heart of Sierra Leone’s governance architecture. 

In this office I saw powerful men and women crumble in tears and the weak and strong admit their flaws and surrender to a better way of life and Sierra Leone’s renewed collective resolve against CORRUPTION. In this office, some of the hardest truths were said and people close to me sent to prison or made to pay even sometimes with tears in my eyes – but it had to be done, for DUTY is the mother of all responsibility. In this office, Justice was prioritized even if the Heavens were falling! In these offices we planned the future and designed the present. Here, we plotted and showed the world that better is possible in Sierra Leone within the framework of the New Direction!

On a personal front, in this office, I won over 150 local and international awards and represented Sierra Leone on respectable stages in the fight agsinst corruption. It is here I got the highest honours and respectable recognitions for diligent work and service for my Country. In this office glorious medals were won and silverware attracted like nothing. It was a stage and I MAXIMIZED in it big with the love and support of my ACC team!

In this small office, passsions were expressed and resentment subdued. It is an office that saw love and hate animated. It saw tears and joys passionately synchronize in eyes gazing at each other. It saw laugher and anguish collide and interchange. If Walls could talk, they would clap for the unimaginable dramas and adventure that unfolded in these small Walls.

In this office, everything was given, with nothing taken. Sacrifices were made at a huge personal cost for the greater good to prevail! It saw COURAGE clash with threats. It saw CALM subdue anger. It saw wits outdo chicanery. It saw stamina, fortitude and endurance deployed against Sierra Leone’s greatest enemy – corruption! It was a Citadel of hope!

This office is the first Public office I worked in, appointed Anti-Corruption Commissioner by the Vissionary President, HE Dr. Julius Maada Bio, when I was just 33 years old and it was good to me in extreme ways; and today I tell it THANK YOU as I move into the future with the beauty of more life’s adventure in the horizon. . .BYE BYE my first stage at Public Duty – I will never forget these walls I called home for 5 years!”. He noted