By Ishmael Dumbuya
The Deputy Commissioner of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Augustine Foday Ngobie, has officially received Trainers from Canada in his office at the commission’s headquarters at Gloucester Street, Freetown.
The Deputy Commissioner,on behalf of the ACC Commissioner, Francis Ben Kaifala, warmly appreciated the team for the training and implored them to do more.
He emphasised that, changing mindsets and cultures that entertain corruption was tough, but the responsibility of the ACC, which makes their training very relevant.
The Deputy ACC boss assured them of the institution’s support and collaboration once it relates to increasing and improving staff knowledge and capacity to curb corruption in Sierra Leone.
Whilst introducing the trainers, Director, Public Education and External Outreach, ACC, Patrick Sandi stated that Bill Pipke, representing ‘Commissioning Lifestyle of Integrity’ and Bruce Mann from Canada are in Sierra Leone to provide training to staff of the ACC. Sandi furthered that that was the second training provided to the Commission in house by Bill and Bruce.
The Director of Operations ACC, Emmanuel Koivaya Amara, made it resoundingly clear that training on integrity and the fight against corruption were critical to staff.
He called on the Trainers to ensure that staffs are properly skilled and their capacities improved in order to effectively deal with anti-corruption issues.
In their presentations, Bill Pipke and Bruce Mann thanked the ACC leadership for the hospitality and reception, adding that a lot more of public officers require this training to up their skills in public sector management and the proper handling of public resources.
The team is in Sierra Leone to provide training to various institutions on mainly transforming societies, cultures and integrity.
It is expected that other staff members of the Commission will also benefit from the training programme whilst plans remain active for a comprehensive training to be rolled out, consisting of, ACC partners, and Schools Integrity and Accountability Now Clubs leaderships.
It should be noted that during their last visit, this team had an engagement with the ACC Commissioner.
