{"id":75074,"date":"2016-10-17T10:42:19","date_gmt":"2016-10-17T10:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=457c53d3dd3ccc5367e1fdfc3c97e1f2"},"modified":"2016-10-17T10:42:19","modified_gmt":"2016-10-17T10:42:19","slug":"press-release-anti-corruption-commission-unveils-pay-no-bribe-citizens-reporting-platform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=75074","title":{"rendered":"Press release: Anti-Corruption Commission unveils \u2018Pay No Bribe\u2019 citizens&#8217; reporting platform"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>Pay No Bribe (<abbr title=\"Pay No Bribe\">PNB<\/abbr>) is an innovative reporting platform where citizens can anonymously report incidents of petty corruption and bribery. Citizens can register an incident via a hotline phone number (515), <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pnb.gov.sl\/\">the <abbr title=\"Pay No Bribe\">PNB<\/abbr> website<\/a> or on a mobile application in Krio, Mende and Temne. The recorded data will allow the Government of Sierra Leone (<abbr title=\"Government of Sierra Leone\">GoSL<\/abbr>) to monitor public sector corruption trends, and use quantitative evidence to design more effective anti-corruption policy and processes.<\/p>\n<p><abbr title=\"Pay No Bribe\">PNB<\/abbr> is modelled on other successful systems in Ghana, Uganda, and India. In keeping with the <abbr title=\"Government of Sierra Leone\">GoSL<\/abbr>\u2019s commitment to tackle petty corruption and bribery in key service areas, the platform allows citizens to anonymously record incidents in key areas such as water and sanitation, healthcare, education, police and energy. Incidents are logged according to location, the type of bribe requested and (if monetary) the amount. Age and gender are also recorded.<\/p>\n<p><abbr title=\"Pay No Bribe\">PNB<\/abbr> is not a system for investigating people or punitive action, it is a data capturing tool allowing the Anti-Corruption Commission (<abbr title=\"Anti-Corruption Commission\">ACC<\/abbr>) to collect and share data and trends with relevant <abbr title=\"Government of Sierra Leone\">GoSL<\/abbr> ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs). The MDAs will use this data to address corruption at source through administrative action or systems \/ policy reforms. The <abbr title=\"Anti-Corruption Commission\">ACC<\/abbr> will regularly publish data reports, spotlighting trends among public services, as well as progressive action taken by MDAs. Members of the public, media organisations, <abbr title=\"Civil society organisations\">CSOs<\/abbr> and other interested parties can also access data and action updates via the <abbr title=\"Pay No Bribe\">PNB<\/abbr> website.<\/p>\n<p>The <abbr title=\"Pay No Bribe\">PNB<\/abbr> reporting platform will be unveiled in Freetown-the Western Area, and popularised in Bo, Kenema and Bombali. For its first 6 months, public awareness outreach and engagements will be conducted by local civil society organisations (<abbr title=\"Civil society organisations\">CSOs<\/abbr>). Citizens will be able to access local CSO representatives in towns and villages to register incidents via the <abbr title=\"Pay No Bribe\">PNB<\/abbr> app and mobile phones. After this initial pilot phase, <abbr title=\"Pay No Bribe\">PNB<\/abbr> may be expanded into new sectors, or new districts, allowing nationwide coverage.<\/p>\n<p><abbr title=\"Pay No Bribe\">PNB<\/abbr> is led jointly by the Anti-Corruption Commission and the Office of the Chief of Staff, in coordination with relevant MDAs and is part of the President\u2019s delivery priorities. The platform is funded by UK Aid and <abbr title=\"Government of Sierra Leone\">GoSL<\/abbr>. Coffey International has provided technical support to the <abbr title=\"Anti-Corruption Commission\">ACC<\/abbr> and <abbr title=\"Government of Sierra Leone\">GoSL<\/abbr> in developing the <abbr title=\"Pay No Bribe\">PNB<\/abbr> platform.<\/p>\n<p><abbr title=\"Pay No Bribe\">PNB<\/abbr> is an important tool in the fight against corruption in Sierra Leone. Corruption is pervasive throughout the state and although there has been improvement, corruption involved in access to basic services threatens economic gains made since the end of the war in 2002. Citizens have not reaped the full benefits of national growth as corruption exacerbates poor quality of life.<\/p>\n<p>Citizens currently have few channels through which to challenge corruption when they experience it, have little ability to hold officials or local politicians to account and little access to sanctions or redress. Where the burden of corruption falls on the poorest, <abbr title=\"Pay No Bribe\">PNB<\/abbr> gives citizens a voice and empowers them to feed into national change, encouraging government-citizen engagement.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Ady Macauley, Commissioner, Anti-Corruption Commission, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>We will roll out the \u2018Pay No Bribe\u2019 Campaign, which puts the weapons to beat the evil of corruption in Sierra Leone into the hands of the public. It allows individuals to tell us in confidence when they have been asked to pay a bribe for health, education, water, power and police services.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">Ministries, departments and agencies will act on this information to tackle bribery \u2018hotspots\u2019 and will report back to the public on the action they have taken.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Guy Warrington, the British High Commissioner, said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"last-child\">This new reporting platform is another strong example of the British government working alongside the government of Sierra Leone on programmes which will make a real difference to the lives of people in this country. Corruption ruins people\u2019s lives, and stops countries becoming wealthier. The Pay No Bribe programme forms an integral part of the UK\u2019s commitment to supporting the government of Sierra Leone\u2019s President\u2019s recovery priorities.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UK government\u2019s anti-corruption support to Sierra Leone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75074"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75074\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}