A senior auditor at the Sierra Leone Auditor Service, Morrie Lansana, has disclosed to Awoko that there is no need for an Anti Corruption Commission if there is an adequate auditing service.
Mr Lansana explained that, “there has been a lot of problems associated with the delay in the annual publication of the financial auditing report,” noting that for auditing to be successful it needed a lot of financial backup.
He disclosed that the auditing commission was not as independent as people thought. “We depend on government to meet our needs, and with the limited resources that are provided with, we are just working with what is provided,” he said.
The auditor explained that, “finance has been a key motivating factor to our operations,” adding that improvement of their operations depended on government’s financial support.
“The fact that our audit service is not an autonomous body and depends on government for its support does not mean that government’s support is affecting our report,” he noted.
He pointed out that under the Public Budget and Accountability Act (PBA) not even the president was purview to the report unless and until it was debated by parliament. “It is only parliament that has the right through the public committee to make the account become public,” he said.
Mr Lansana pointed out that constitutional requirements had made accessing the report a bottleneck, adding further that the Statutory Order 75 was one of these provisions.
He maintained that it would be the best interest of the public through their representatives in parliament to advocate for the repeal of these provisions.
“With regards to financial auditing we have sent the 2005 report to parliament and with the Auditor General’s move to produce a financial account we are now working on the 2006,” he averred.
ADVERTISEMENT