What is a police clearance?
By Ahmed Papa Kanu.
In the wake of the SLFA Elections, a major misunderstanding over a police clearance has overshadowed the issue of integrity checks. In summary, a police clearance is a document released by the police criminal records department that a person of interest has no criminal record. After intensive research, aspirants for various SLFA positions were asked to submit, as part of their integrity test, the following: Passport; Integrity declaration forms; Passport picture; Police clearance of no criminal record and other relevant documents.
The declaration was to ensure the aspirants had no criminal records, no bankruptcy, no previous unethical issues, of sound reputation and so on. Aspirants declared they were free from any criminal record and submitted police clearance as back up to their claims. A police clearance would include the aspirants name, address, passport information, and a confirmation that they had no criminal record.
In order to be thorough and efficient, the Ethics Board wrote to various organisations and institutions to seek clarification and authentication of the documents submitted.
With one of the aspirants, the police admitted that the police clearance was legitimate based on the passport details, name, and address of the aspirant. This is fine. The clearance is valid, there is no record of any criminal record associated with the said aspirant, and the document is valid and issued by the criminal department of the Sierra Leone Police.
However, as seen on social media, especially by supporters of one aspirant, is that the absence of the fingerprint has invalidated the police clearance.
Assuming this claim that that the police clearance was not subject to fingerprint, it is absolutely nonsense to suggest that it invalidates the clearance, and this is why the aspirant did not claim to have done a fingerprint. The aspirant declared she has no criminal record, no bankruptcy, and no reason for her to be considered as failing the integrity test. The police clearance backed up her declaration that she had no criminal records as was required
Now, whilst we all agree that a fingerprint would conclusively clear the aspirant of any criminal record, the absence of such fingerprints does not invalidate the clearance or render it a forged or illegal document.
If a fingerprint is of value, the Ethics board can easily request for a fingerprint to be done to be sure the clearance is complete and conclusive, and the aspirant has no criminal record. This is the usual strategy to disqualify people from all elections in Sierra Leone on the most flimsy excuses. This nonsense must stop! Football does not need it again after the severe consequences it faced in previous years. Let the elections be free and fair and let the best candidate win.
