Orange SL Trains Stakeholders on Corruption
By Feima Sesay
Orange SL Ethics and Compliance Team, in a way to ensure a Zero tolerance on corruption has held an Anti-corruption training for employees and partners of the company.
The training is part of a number of training exercises which the company has been providing for its stakeholders.
The main objectives of the training is raising awareness and preventing corruption, fighting corruption, highlighting corruption risk and consequences for non-compliance.
It also helps partners to understand about the Company’s authorities.
Speaking at the training, the General Secretary and head of Compliance Haffie Haffner in her address prior to the commencements of the training told participant that intensifying the fight against corruption has been a global concern and that the private sector was not left out.
She said the company is subjected not only to local but also to global anti-corrupt laws and that the subjection of the company to several laws present a clear case for the company to ensure integrity amongst its employees and partners.
Madam Haffner said they have the responsibility to operate in a transparent ethical manner and that the company has a dedicated ethics and Compliance Team to ensure the fight against corruption becomes a success story.
She said knowledge is power and that a person would only know what to do and what not to do when they are properly trained.
Madam Haffner believes that failing to understand corruption is an issue in any relationship that put values at the core of it operations. She also gave a rundown of the training sessions the company conducted.
She said in 2019, the company trained 72% of their staff and in 2020 they developed a digital method of training due to the outbreak of Covid-19 and was 100% completed.
The facilitator Gerald Cole another head of compliance told the participants that Orange SL operates in over 30 countries including U.K and USA.
He said the company therefore has an unavailable obligation to fight corruption.
In his view he sees corruption as giving or promise 9f giving anything of value for someone to do something that they are not entitled to do.
Mr. Cole said Corruption is wide and that it is not only a concern for government but also for the private sector.
He also spoke briefly on danger of corruption noting that create unnecessary cost and delays in the production and delivery of goods and services.
The training he said was very important because corruption by partners is Corruption by Orange Sierra Leone, stressing that a partners who gives bribe to any person is equivalent to the company giving out bribe
Mr Cole also took the participants through on the company’s key policies on corruption.
Which is the code of conduct and internal sanction, and risk assessment, due diligence, accounting control and procedures, internal evaluation.
A whistle blowing system is also encouraged under the internal sanctions policy to give opportunity to partners to report any Act of corruption.
Mr Cole said the company has a Gift and Entertainment and a conflict of interest policies.
Which debar the company employees from receiving gifts without declaring them to the management.
Under the same police he said employees are prohibited from receiving a gift that amounts to Le 890,000 for a year.
He said an appropriate governance system is in place within the organization such as ethics, risk, finance and other committees as well as officers.
He continues that for the past three years, there has been an Ethics clause in contract and supplies for the company.
The company therefore called on Sierra Leoneans especially business partners to join the company in the fight against corruption adding that the company discourages any form of corruption in its operations.
Transformation In Progress At SLRTC
By Ezekiel Dumbuya and Mohamed Jalloh
Mr Mohamed Zoker the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Sierra Leone Road Transport Authority has in an exclusive interview with this medium, revealed the transformation plans that could see the evolution of the Sierra Leone Roads Transport Cooperation (SLRTC) from a social service provider to a regulator of the transport sector.
The PRO disclosed on how the conversion of the institution will witness a change of name as the nascent body will assume the nomenclature, Sierra Leone Roads Transport Authority (SLRTA).
With the change of name, the PRO said the mandate of the New SLRTA would take the form of a watchdog over private entities that would be exclusively rendering Public transportation services to the general public.
According to Mr Zoker the public transport regulatory role is not only limited to buses, taxis and Mini vans but Motor cycles and tricycles are also encapsulated as means of public transportation.
The PRO synchronised with the general belief that government is not a “good business man†which prompted the decision that would eventually lead to relinquishing the business of public transportation to the private sector.
He said the rationale of the SLRTC is in line with the global trend and dynamics that has witnessed the vacating of the public transportation role to private individuals who could put their mouths where their monies are.
Mr. Zoker revealed that the transformation from SLRTC to SLRTA was supported by a $5O million grant which would be utilised for the completion of the project by way of enhancing the capacity of the new regulatory authority.
The PRO Commended the Public Sector Reform Unit (PSRU) and other government agencies for their collaborative efforts in providing the crucial technical support that is vital to the conversion from a public transportation provider to a regulatory body.
He continued by drawing a similitude to that of the telecommunications providers such as Africell, Orange and the National Telecommunications Commission (NATCOM) which is the regulator.
According to the PRO the relationship between the nascent SLRTA regulator and the private businesses running public transportation would be analogous to what obtains in the telecommunications sector.
In order to set the the stage for the transformation, Mr Zoker noted that about 65 staff of the SLRTC were made redundant but added that their emoluments and other accompanying benefits due them were made available according to due process.  Â
