National Gendarmerie Creates Anti-Corruption Cell

To address all forms of corruption within the Arms, the National Gendarmerie has been charged to coordinate the actions in the fight against corruption through a toll free number 1501.

Emmanuel Ngota

The putting in place of this toll free number 1501 in order to denounce all acts of corruption within the Army is an initiative conceived two months ago by the Secretary of State to the Minister of Defence in charge of the National Gendarmerie, Galax Yves Landry Etoga.

Before now, denunciation mechanisms were already in place which sanctioned personnel guilty of acts of corruption towards civilians. The denunciation procedure was at first carried out through written complaints or surprise inspection visits conducted by inspectors to units.

Thus from the reality on the ground, this mode of denunciation had numerous setbacks as it took a lot of time and energy for the complaints to reach the right quarters and at the same time gets missing on the way. This made it difficult for infractions committed to be treated with diligence and professionalism.

So with the putting in place of this toll free number 1501 under the supervision of the newly created anti corruption cell which is attached to the operational command centre of the National Gendarmerie (PCOPS), will permit each and everyone who falls prey to corruption to address their worries without any protocol duly respected.

It is no doubt that corruption is a canker worm that has eaten deep into administrations but with the army, statistics holds that it is still minimal but chances shouldn’t be taken by putting a cell of this magnitude which will contribute in the fight against corruption in the Army.

The setting up of this cell no doubt will also serve at preserving the ethics and deontology of the military profession, a corps admires by many most especially the National Gendarmerie which is at the service of all in the protection of persons and their property.

The difference between the famous toll free numbers 113 of the National Gendarmerie which is the 113 to the 1501 is the fact that, the 113 carters for distress calls like accidents, banditry, research of suspects, and the list goes on and on.