Mr. Carr began by warmly welcoming the audience to the National Accountability Group’s inaugural Dialogue Forum. He discussed the beginnings of NAG which, he said, was born out of the seven professional Sierra Leoneans who had gone to Prague in the Czech Republic in 2001 for the Transparency International annual meeting. They decided at that meeting to organize themselves into a national chapter of Transparency International in recognition of the challenges that their country faced in rooting out the endemic corruption. They realised that the “the lack of individual responsibility leads to collective failure.” He was therefore happy and proud that despite initial difficulties NAG has finally realised the Prague dream and properly instituted and determined and committed to play its rightful role in the fight against corruption. He expounded the need for civil society to engage in an open dialogue with government in the fight against corruption.

In introducing the Chairman of the Forum, Mr. Carr declared that Mr. Valentine Collier needed no introduction, because everybody gathered at the forum knew him. As the Commissioner of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Mr. Collier is now a household name. Mr. Carr spoke of the Commissioner’s daunting task to address corruption in the country, and stressed that civil society must work with the Commission to make government more accountable to the people of Sierra Leone.

Chairman’s Opening Remarks
Valentine Collier, Anti-Corruption Commissioner

Mr. Collier began his opening remarks by explaining the good working relation between his Commission and the National Accountability Group. He observed that the two organisations share a lot of commonalities in their work, amongst which is trying to make government more accountable. In addition, both are also in their formative stage.

Mr. Collier stated his belief that corruption is Sierra Leone’s greatest challenge. It has not only led to a lot of hardship affecting the poor most especially, but contributed to a large extent to the war in Sierra Leone and other African countries. He therefore believes that accountability is one of the pillars in assuaging and addressing the problem of corruption, in combination with sound financial management and transparency in government. Despite the difficulties, he believed that we could actually do it. But it is a collective responsibility by everybody: government, donors, ACC and civil society especially. He asked that everyone should leave the forum with a desire and commitment to play a role to play in ensuring more accountability governance and to curb corruption in Sierra Leone.

He then introduced Mr. Ibrahim Karim Sei, a senior and experienced journalist in Sierra Leone both in his capacity as Secretary General of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists and Editor in the Standard Times newspaper. Mr. Collier emphasised on the strategic role of the press in addressing corruption. He, however, urged the media to properly investigate issues before putting them in print, observing that there remained a need for more responsible journalism with a high degree of integrity.