[8] In 2007, a leaked audit commissioned by then president Ernest Bai Koroma revealed widespread corruption in many government ministries including suspicious loans and missing international aid funds.
[6] According to the Afrobarometer survey conducted in Sierra Leone in July 2018, 50% of respondents reported needing to pay a bribe in order to obtain medical care.
[11] The health care system had been severely damaged by the Sierra Leone Civil War, leading to shortages of medical personnel, infrastructure and equipment.
In the aftermath of these scandals, reforms were made to the program, include a tracking system for the allocation of medicine and accountability measures for the health care field.
[12] However, not all of these measures, including government efforts to raise health care worker's salaries, were seen as effective and bribery continues to be a major issue.
During the Sierra Leone Civil War, the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) used revenue from the illicit diamond trade to fund their operations.
These officials were alleged to take bribes in exchange for allowing illicit diamonds to be smuggled to neighbouring countries such as Guinea or Mali, where they are given false certificates stating that they came from legal mines.