On Tuesday 9th February 2021, Sierra Leone’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) mentioned in a press release that it has commenced probing into payment and expenditure of public funds by the Office of the First Lady.
ACC informed the public that the issues were drawn from the 2019 Auditor General’s Report and various social media and traditional publications on budgetary allocations and expenditures of funds to the First Lady’s Office, adding that the commission will do a full and comprehensive probing into the past and present of the aforementioned office that deals with matters of budgetary justifications for allocations and expenditures of state funds to that entity and the legal and regulatory framework, if any, for them.
“Preliminary findings show that the entity known as “Office of First Lady” had been receiving billions of Leones of State funds yearly, spanning 14 years to date – and most of the payments were either directly made to the holders of that office or channeled, through the Presidency, as normal presidential official expenditure signed-off on by respective Secretaries to the President,” the release maintained.
ACC said they are similarly reviewing Section 39 of the Public Financial Management Act 2016 which gives the state authority to expend state funds to unallocated head(s) of expenditure to a certain threshold to “necessary” public cause(s), and whether such a threshold was used and/or breached in making payments such as the ones under review over the years.
“We are therefore at the stage of collecting and analysing records of accounts, official approval documents and any legal or regulatory framework around such payments; and the conclusions reached will assist in determining progress on the issue. We will also interview persons of interest in that regard, where necessary. We shall keep the public fully informed on our findings, conclusions and next steps.”
By abdulrahman.koroma@awokonewspaper.sl