FREETOWN, May 20, (Reuters) - Three top officials of a Sierra Leonean body charged with driving moral change in the West African nation have been found guilty of misappropriating state funds worth thousands of dollars.
The case underscores the struggle President Ernest Bai Koroma faces, four years into office, as he tries to control corruption and rebuild the country's mining, agriculture and tourism sectors that were crippled by years of war.
The men were accused of failing to account for parts of about ${esc.dollar}400,000 they had received from companies on behalf of the Attitudinal and Behavioural Change Office.
The officials, including the body's executive director and national coordinator, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The country's high court judge sentenced both men to either pay a fine of ${esc.dollar}35,000 or face a 3-year jail term while a third man, a regional director for the body, was sentenced to pay a ${esc.dollar}20,000 fine or go to jail for 3 years.
"Your job in the secretariat was to advocate policy to the nation which was a clarion call by President Koroma but you all failed to do so," Judge Browne Marke said as he sentenced them.
"You have deceived the nation and therefore your reward is to pay a fine or go to jail," he added.
(Reporting by Christo Johnson; Writing by Bate Felix; editing by David Lewis and Michel Rose)
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