By Sahr Ibrahim Komba
When the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its 2025 Governance and Corruption Diagnostic (GCD) on Sierra Leone, it confirmed what many citizens, civil society groups, and development partners have long suspected our country’s problems with governance and corruption are not occasional or isolated; they are systemic, deeply rooted, and costing the nation dearly.
But this latest report stands out for one reason: it puts real numbers on the losses and shows exactly how these governance weaknesses drag down development and everyday life in Sierra Leone.
For Sierra Leone, a country already struggling with high cost of living, limited jobs, rising debt, weak public services, and slow human development progress, the GCD is more than another report; it is a mirror showing where we have gone wrong and how much it is costing us.
According to the IMF, Sierra Leone lost an estimated 10.45 to 15.9 trillion old Leones (about US$458 million to $698 million)to corruption between 2016 and 2018, more than the country collected in revenue during those three years. That is money that could have paid for schools, hospitals, roads, water systems, and jobs.
These losses are not some abstract economic term. They represent concrete missed opportunities: medicines that never reached clinics, roads that remain unbuilt, classrooms left overcrowded, and services that crumble under pressure.
The IMF report makes clear that weaknesses in Sierra Leone’s governance are not just about a few bad actors; they are rooted in systems that fail to prevent, detect, and punish corruption.
Weak financial controls mean that public money can be spent or transferred with little oversight. Procurement systems where government contracts for goods, services, or building projects are awarded are often opaque, lacking real competition, and vulnerable to political influence. Without clear transparency, tenders can be inflated or awarded to companies that give little value, costing Sierra Leone huge sums.
Oversight bodies such as the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Audit Service Sierra Leone (ASSL), and Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) struggle with unpredictable funding and political pressures, limiting their ability to investigate and act effectively. When watchdogs depend on the very institutions they must oversee for their budgets, wrongdoing can go unchecked.
These systemic weaknesses have wide consequences. The IMF points out that public trust in institutions erodes when citizens see corruption and weak accountability go unaddressed. This loss of trust hinders efforts to broaden tax compliance, attract investment, and build sustainable public services.
Even though Sierra Leone has laws and anti-corruption institutions, enforcement remains uneven. Reports like the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index show a slow erosion in public confidence, with Sierra Leone’s ranking slipping in recent years.
Corruption and poor governance weaken the fiscal space of the government’s ability to raise and spend money effectively. Funds lost to leakages mean less money for healthcare, education, agriculture, infrastructure, and services that people depend on every day.
It also makes borrowing more expensive and risky, adding pressure to an already fragile economy. Without strong governance, rising debt becomes even harder to manage. These weaknesses discourage both local and foreign investors, slowing economic growth and job creation.
The good news from the diagnostic report is that it does more than describe the problems; it recommends clear steps that can make a real difference if implemented seriously.
These include:
- Strengthening financial controls so that budgets are executed properly and government payments are verified and tracked.
- Making public procurement transparent requires open tendering, publishing contracts, and disclosing the true owners of companies that win government business.
- Empowering oversight institutions with regular, protected funding and independence from political interference.
- Improving transparency and reporting in the mining and extractive sectors, which remain key parts of the economy but are prone to under-reporting and mismanagement.
- Increasing compliance with anti-money-laundering and financial crime frameworks to stop illicit money flows.
Sierra Leone has seen governance reports before but the difference now is the scale of the economic crisis and the clarity with which failures and solutions are presented. Weak governance affects everyone from the student in a rural classroom to the civil servant trying to deliver services in a clinic or community.
If the nation fails to follow through on the IMF’s recommendations, then no amount of foreign aid, new investment in mining, or borrowing will lead to sustainable progress. What has been lost to corruption cannot be ignored any longer.
The Governance and Corruption Diagnostic should not sit on a shelf. It should be a national reform blueprint, used by Parliament, civil society, the private sector, churches, journalists, and citizens to monitor progress, demand accountability, and push for real change.
Sierra Leone stands at a crossroads. The GCD does more than highlight problems it offers solutions. What happens next will show whether the nation chooses reform and transparency, or continues with weak systems that undermine development.
