Section 21, The Statistics Act, 2002

(1) Any officer of Statistics Sierra Leone who, in the course of his employment under this Act– (a) wilfully makes any false declaration, statement or return; (b) obtains or seeks to obtain information that he is not duly authorised to obtain; No. 13 Statistics Act 2002 17 (c) puts to any person a question which he is not duly authorised to ask; (d) asks of, or receives or takes from, any person, business or other organisation, any payment or reward in connection with such employment, other than remuneration due to him as an employee; (e) wilfully discloses any data or information obtained in the course of such employment to a person not authorised to receive that information; (f) uses information obtained in the course of such employment for the purpose of speculating in any stock, bond or other security or any goods or services, before its release is authorised by the Statistician-General; or (g) contravenes any provision of this section; commits an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding five hundred thousand leones or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to both such fine and imprisonment. (2) Any person who— (a) impersonates an officer of Statistics Sierra Leone for the purpose of unlawfully obtaining information from any person or body; or (b) represents himself to be making an entry or inspection or putting a question in accordance with section 19 when he is not an officer of Statistics Sierra Leone authorised under section 19, 18 No. 13 Statistics Act 2002 commits an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding five hundred thousand leones or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to both such fine and imprisonment. (3) Any individual other than an employee of any business or other organisation who— (a) fails to answer or incites another person not to answer a question put to him as required under this Act or furnishes or incites another person to furnish an answer to such a question which is false or misleading in any material respect, knowing the answer to be false or misleading; or (b) wilfully obstructs the Statistician-General or any officer of Statistics Sierra Leone in the performance of any of his functions under this Act, commits an offence and shall be liable on conviction– (i) in the case of an individual, to a fine not exceeding five hundred thousand leones, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to both such fine and imprisonment; and (ii) in the case of a business or other organisation, to a fine not exceeding two million leones. (4) Any individual, business or other organisation convicted of an offence under this section shall not be relieved of the obligation to supply the required information and if after 14 days from the date of sentencing for that offence, the information has still not been furnished, No. 13 Statistics Act 2002 19 that individual, business or other organisation commits a further offence and shall be liable on conviction, for each day after the expiry of that 14 day period– (a) in the case of an individual, to a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand leones; or (b) in the case of a business or other organisation, to a fine not exceeding five hundred thousand leones. [Margin: References in other legislation or documents.]