Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) yesterday presented a final report on the review of practices and procedures of the University of Sierra Leone to the Vice Chancellor of the University of Sierra Leone, Professor Jonas Redwood Sawyerr.
The ceremony which took place at the conference room of the Ministry of Finance, attracted staff of the different universities, officials from the Income Tax and Revenue, NRA and other personnel from the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Infrastructure.
The Chairman of the programme who is also the Commissioner of ACC, Joseph Kamara, while giving an update of the Commission, said that they have 191 files comprising cases for investigation, and wherever the ACC notices an act of corruption or its related practices, they will intervene with utmost determination.
He mentioned that ACC-led cases such as the 50th Anniversary corruption issue, the SLRA and the Freetown Waste Management Company (FWMC) have been concluded and are awaiting judgment.
He said the case of Mayor and 7 others, having received judgment from the High Court, have made payments as ordered. Others have appealed and one person is yet to pay, the case of Aljazeera was also mentioned and that the case is ongoing, and that Sorious has concluded his testimony. He also stated that the election will not affect their job.
In his presentation, the Director Systems and Process Review, Morris Williams said that their findings came as a report from people and other stakeholders.
In his findings, he said that there is non-payment of Income Tax though deducted at source and also observed that there is no uniformity in fees for similar courses in the colleges, with students paying for facilities but they are not getting access. He cited the example of ICT and medical, centralized financial management secretariat, drivers-mate at COMAHS, encroachment on land at FBC and COMAHS by land-grabbers, with students admitted with false results (WASSCE). Some colleges do not have a comprehensive list of admitted students, while there are more admissions into college with little infrastructure at FBC. Also, students admitted into nursing with fake results at COMAHS, poor handling of stores and record management and un- trained storekeepers. Which are just a few of the problems.
Some of the recommendations include, timely payment of subventions, uniformity in charges for similar courses in all colleges, also the university should honor its tax liabilities, students to get full access to facilities paid for, uniformity in fees for accommodation, job descriptions to be provided for workers, steps to be taken to relieve COMAHS of all drivers mate, admission to match infrastructural facilities, vigorous monitoring of admission process at Faculty of Nursing COMAHS to ensure proper management of stores.
Some of the good practices include; monitoring of lectures in class of which IPAM is a good example. Transcript given to students rather than results, students to access facilities paid for especially payment for accommodation, refund of fees to grant in-aid holders.
Responding to the findings the Vice Chancellor said that they will look into some of the findings and come out with possible remedies.
The commissioner then presented the findings in the form of a report to the Vice Chancellor.
By Nancy Koroma
ADVERTISEMENT