By Pa Alhaji
The Commissioner of the Anti-Corruption (ACC) Francis Ben Kaifala has revealed to this medium that he is very enthusiastic to hit the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM), the entity that bagged the AWOL Best Tertiary Institution of the Year, as on the 20 February 2020 he will deliver a powerful Public Lecture as a Guest Speaker on the topic “Fighting Corruption in Public Procurement in Sierra Leone: The Way Forward”. The event will take place at the Miatta conference Centre on the 20th February 2020.
The ACC Boss disclosed that he will grace the Procurement Seminar organized by IPAM in order to interact with future Procurement Officers in Sierra Leone and to continue to enlighten them on the need to fight corruption in Public Procurement in Sierra Leone and discuss the way forward.
According to him, young people are very instrumental in the fight against corruption. “I believe we need to teach them about the dangers associated with corruption,” he underscored.
It could be recalled that most of the issues that were unraveled by the Government Transition Report (GTT) centered around breaching procurement processes and procedures. It is also clear from the proceedings of the just concluded Commissions of Inquiry bordered on floating procurement rules.
Against such a backdrop, it is but timely for IPAM to organize such a seminar in order to help shape the thought processes of students pursuing courses in procurement.
Some students perceive the young and pro-active ACC Boss as their mentor and from what was learnt they are all set to give him a rousing welcome.
Hawa Moriba, a DIPS Year 2 student has this to say: “ I believe it will definitely aid me to identify my strengths and weaknesses as an aspiring Chief Procurement Specialist in time to come because key intellectuals, one of which will be Francis Ben Kaifala, will unfold many things some which I only know theoretically. I know that what I will gain will be implemented in the future for the betterment of our nation.”
Mohamed Koroma, a DIPS student from IPAM -Makeni Campus, in stating reasons as to why he is so elated to attend this first ever Seminar are to gain more knowledge from the various guest speakers about the advantages of introducing the e- procurement in S/L in accordance with the Public Procurement Act of 2016, to get a positive result on the approval of a degree course in Procurement and Supply respectively.
Elijah Musa Conteh stated that with this kind of opportunity he strongly believes that they are going to have the Bsc Degree Program introduced. “Our program will be exclusive in the country so that more students will be eager to come on-bound. It is a great pleasure to witness this seminar and I am highly interested. I also want to thank our Heads of Department for coming up with this wonderful initiative,” he furthered.
Janet Alpha said, “we will be happy to receive the no nonsense ACC Boss in our midst not only because his charisma but his penchant to thrill students and for his tremendous contributions to the development of Sierra Leone.”
Meanwhile Mr. Kollie, the Coordinator of the Seminar said all things have been put in place to host the wonderful seminar further revealing that the said program is expected to bring together about one thousand five hundred (1500) students from Freetown, Bo, Kenema, Kono and Makeni IPAM campuses which will be broadcast live by AVY and other broadcast stations.
