The kind of unimaginable revelations coming out of the Commission of Inquiry can make any poor striving patriotic Sierra Leone look back in anger… at the greed and impunity of some of our leaders. I only hope that the SLPP administration will not go down that ugly road of bad governance, corruption and greed. President Bio told us he would lead by example and his main focus will include: building human capital, fighting corruption and poverty, and then instilling discipline.Right now, our country is divided because those who lavishly indulged themselves in robbing our nation and those who were marginalized and excluded from the national cake. Youth marginalization and non-inclusion was one of the reasons for the horrendous rebel carnage. Unfortunately, some of the causes of that war are still lingering around seventeen years after the official end of the conflict.
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Why… with all the systems in place… why have we failed to do the right thing and do them right? What really grinds me inside is the level of unbridled corruption in this small country with the same population of the city of Accra or the Nigerian army. Tell me why the Auditor General’s Annual Report has been largely ignored (perhaps intentionally) in the most despicable manner. Many of the problems we face today about governance accountability is because our leaders have ignored the Auditor General’s Recommendations, year-in and year-out. If we take a glance at the Auditor General’s Report for 2015, you will see a government throwing caution to the wind and entrenching an already deep-seated poverty. Section 119 of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone gives the Auditor General the mandate to audit how public funds are utilized. This includes the financial statements from the Consolidated Revenue Fund, central Government, budgetary agencies, sub-vented Agencies, local councils, social security funds and public enterprises. The Auditor General checks government performance as the guardian of public funds to ensure that they are used in the manner intended. Three months after the end of the financial year, entities in the government should submit to the Auditor General their annual financial statements, according to the Public Financial Management Act. The Auditor General should, within 12 months of the end of the immediate preceding financial year, submit her annual report to Parliament. Our Auditor General, Laura Taylor-Pearce, has been doing a good job of presenting the audit reports to Parliament, in time, and even collaborating with civil society organizations like the Budget Advocacy Network (BAN) for the simplification and popularization of the reports. The 2015 Report reveals a series of anomalies in the way government bodies utilized funds meant for the development of the country and the servicing of its financial liabilities. Perhaps one of the greatest issues around the Audit Report, apart from the anomalies, is the fact that recommendations made in the report to guide to improve accountability, were, for the most part, ignored. A total of 959 recommendations were made to Government and selected MDAs. It is appalling to know that out of this number; only 276 were implemented leaving 683 not implemented. I think this shows gross negligence and levity over a serious accountability issue. In the area of tax collection, it was found that some businesses were paying far less tax, especially some airlines. As you can see, government was losing out a lot in domestic revenue. Without domestic revenue, the country may not run at all. In 2015, the country lost Le802 million in corporate tax arrears. Part of the problem was that only about half of tax payers were assessed; 111 out of 223. MDAs recorded cash losses totaling Le65.4 billion: mainly for: lapses in procurement procedures; moneys not accounted for; payments without supporting documents; weak management of revenue; non-deduction of withholding taxes; poor control of imprest; fixed assests, stores and fuel records not adequately recorded. Now let’s have a quick look at key findings at the Water Resources Ministry. We all know that eastern Freetown is yet to have clean drinking water. This is very serious given that that overpopulated area is still part of Freetown Urban. Can you imagine that Ministry in 2015 overpriced bowsers by Le14 billion? Yes! The east of Freetown will be going without treated water for a very long time at this rate. At the Correctional Services, overpriced rice by Le295 million. Payments to suppliers for rice were Le190,000 instead of Le178,500 according to the agreement. The issues we have as a nation in education is not just about the delayed approval of teachers but also issues. According to the 2015 Auditor- General’s Report, 75 teachers’ names were on the salary vouchers but could not be found for that period. The total salaries paid to those teachers amounted to Le852.43 million. This is most unfair as there are teachers who have taught for up to ten years but have not been approved by government and thus are not being paid. Even as I write, there are teachers who are yet to regularize their NASSIT form entries and are thus holding up payment of salaries. Can you imagine employers claiming to have paid NASSIT contributions without NASSIT numbers? What this means is that there is a risk that the beneficiaries at the start of their retirement may not receive their actual pension entitlement. In addition unassigned NASSIT contributions are more susceptible to misuse. The number of staff involved is 9,883 amounting to Le18.7 billion in just one year! While concerned Sierra Leoneans worry about the slow pace of decentralization and the election of the local Government on political party basis, the Councils themselves have issues with the Audit Reports. The following six Councils were found wanting: Freetown City Council, Bonthe Municipal Council, Bonthe District Council, Kenema District Council, Koidu and New Sembehun and Kailahun District Council. These Councils did not put revenues raised into accounts totaling Le686 million. In addition, a review of property rate records of Freetown City Council during 2015 revealed that arrears stood at Le7.5 billion. Irregularities were found in the award of contract in the Western Area Rural District Council (WARD C). The awarding of contracts came before the invitation for bids. At the Freetown City Council, staff was paid in cash instead of at the bank, totaling Le973.8 million. Sixteen Councils did payments without adequate supporting documents totaling Le4.9 billion, and three without supporting documents to the tune of Le603.43 million. As we can see, there has been gross disregard for processes and procedures culminating in financial malfeasance across Government institutions causing huge losses to the State. For a donor driven country, this is appalling and the earlier this is curbed, the better. You know the real man not by the size of his body, but by the content of his body.
6/8/19
By Beny Sam
Wednesday August 07, 2019.
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