By Abubakarr Harding
The oldest serving telecommunications service provider in Sierra Leone, Orange-SL, held its 10th Ethics and Compliance Day on Tuesday 11th October 2022, at its Headquarters at IMATT in the West End of Freetown by organizing an interdepartmental debate competition.
It must be noted that the Ethics and Compliance Day is a way through which the company demonstrates its commitment towards compliance with ethical principles that are important to the company’s business and identity.
10 departments were divided into two groups to form two debating teams.
The topic of the interdepartmental debate competition was: “Is it Possible to Do Business in Sierra Leone without Bribery?” and it was to be done in a way whereby the competitors should shed light on the important issues that surround the rise and fall of business in Sierra Leone.
In attendance were the Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, Solomon Jamiru Esq, the Chief Executive Officer of Innovation Sierra Leone, Francis George, the Deputy Director of Strategy at the Anti-Corruption Commission, Edita Fofanah and the President of Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), Ahmad Sahid Nasralla.
The ‘Team in support of the motion’ won the debate with a total of 438 points and they took home the sum of NLE 3.500 and ‘the team against the motion’ scored 429 points and took home the sum of NLE 1.500.
The best speaker prize was shared between Morenikeh Taylor of ‘The team in support of the motion’ and Kenneth Kamara of ‘The team against the motion’.
In her welcome statement, Madam Haffie Haffner disclosed that this is the 10th Edition of the Ethics and Compliance Day celebration organized by Orange Mobile Company. She furthered that Orange-SL group set aside the day to celebrate and take stock of the framework of the institution and to promote ethics and willingness to discourage corruption at all levels.
She went on to state that they collaborated with the Human Resource Department to organize the interdepartmental debate competition, to make it a little bit different from previous ethics and compliance celebrations, as well as to enhance ethics and compliance in customer relations.
Madam Haffie Haffner affirmed that Orange-SL puts prominence and importance on the fight against corruption with strict bye laws that govern the institution, adding that they have a stringent team that ensures customer relations is free of corruption.
The Deputy Minister of Information and Communication, Solomon Jamiru, in his brief statement, thanked Orange-SL for giving him the opportunity to perform a very important and tedious task.
He emphasized that it’s a topic that everyone should feel connected to as all had a share of the experience.
He concluded that such a discussion is beneficial to all and should be the basis for all institutions going forward, as compliance lies within all of us and it’s up to us to do our best.
The event climaxed with the sharing of certificates to all the participants that took part in the debate as well as the taking of pictures and positive interactions.
