Anti-corruption unit in the making

Sierra Leone is to form a corruption prevention unit to fight public and private sector fraud, Attorney-General Solomon Berewa told a news conference on Tuesday in the capital, Freetown. “We are now on the warpath against corruption,” AFP quoted him as saying. The unit, which will include foreigners, will investigate fraud from the presidency down, he said. The level of corruption is much higher now than before the May 1997 coup that ousted President Alhaji Ahmad Kabbah, Berewa said. The government, he added, had uncovered a US $170,000 fraud scam at the Income Tax Department. Police have arrested three employees and are looking for two others. Berewa said the government would apply “emergency regulations” to allow courts investigate economic crime in government and in state owned firms.