The Assistant Auditor General, Aiah Gbondo-Tugbawa, in the Auditor’s General Office revealed teachers, Local Councilors and other government officials were directly involved in the youth in drainage project and were receiving salaries and benefits. According to Gbondo-Tugbawa, the youth in drainage project was initiated to create jobs and clean the gutters in the city and smaller towns. The Assistant Auditor was responding to the performance audit report in May 2017, on Thursday 21 March 2019, before Commissioner Biobele Georgewill at the former Special Court Compound. He said the youth in drainage project was without a project proposal at the start in 2013, not until 17 months after the start of the project. He furthered that more than 15% of the workers involved in the youth in drainage project were above the age of youth which is taken to be between 15 and 35-years. He said young workers were to receive Le400,000 per month. After delivering a questionnaire, they discovered 5.5% of workers did not receive salaries for five months, while 74% of workers received below the stipulated amount. Over 2,000 youth were supposed to have benefited from the project. The Assistant Auditor said, “The team was unable to verify any drainage worker in Bo and outside the provincial towns. He noted the lack of supporting documents for many of the project expenditures during 2014 and 2015. He cited two instances: Over Le6 billion was paid to drainage clearing workers from the account and over Le2.2 billion was withdrawn from the account without supporting documents. The witness also said that procurement procedures were not properly followed, by the Ministry noting that a 50% advancement payment was made to a Ministry contractor, which contravened the Procurement Act. According to the witness, the Minister approved and signed contracts on behalf of the Ministry.
MJB/21/3/19
By Mohamed J. Bah
Friday March 22, 2019.