In his presidential campaign last year Koroma promised Sierra Leoneans a “zero tolerance” approach to corruption, writes Reuters. And as he signed the bill into effect Koroma declared: "What we are doing today is unique, not only within the sub-region, but even in Africa. It is a clear message to all Sierra Leoneans that this cancer that has taken up our society must be addressed with all seriousness and commitment," reports Voice of America (VOA).

According to Africa News: “The new law now makes it mandatory for all public officials, including ministers, heads of para-statetals to declare their assets before assuming power.” Asked to estimate the worth of his assets by the BBC, Koroma said they included “properties, vehicles, interest on shares, and a few other items” and that they “would be valued in the hundreds of thousands of dollars - not millions.”

Sierra Leone’s anti-corruption commissioner Abdul Tejan-Cole commented: “The Act will bring the country's laws in line with our international commitment” and “enables us to enter into an international cooperation agreement, and makes provision for the extradition of those who are corrupt -- not only Sierra Leoneans who are corrupt in Sierra Leone and who go abroad, but also foreign nationals who come into Sierra Leone having committed corrupt acts in other countries” (Agence France-Presse).

According to VOA, the new law “increases the number of corruption offences from the nine already on the books to 29. It also provides for stiffer penalties.”

“Corruption is seen as one of the reasons for the outbreak of civil war in the country in the 1990s…It is also seen as the reason the country has been almost consistently at the bottom of the UN's human development index, despite its huge mineral resources,” says the BBC's Sierra Leone correspondent Umaru Fofana.

Sierra Leone scored 1.9 in Transparency International’s 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index (where 10 represents highly clean and 0 represents highly corrupt).