Thursday
December 17, 2015
- The Auditor Generals report for the management of
government resources for the year 2014 is out and save
for a few areas of improvement, the picture of a
deliberate lack of financial control and gross
impropriety remains in government ministries,
departments and missions abroad.
The Auditor General Mrs Lara
Taylor-Pearce has again published the body's findings
with regards to the reporting and the use of government
assets and resources in the care of officials in charge
of safe-guarding these resources.
The picture for 2014
tells the story of a band of hardened and unrepentant
criminals who flout laid down rules with impunity,
divert the people's money into the pockets of
co-conspirators - giving a message out to all - that as
long as they enjoy the protection of the smoke and
mirrors rat at State House, they can get away with
anything.
Perhaps the frustration of dedicated
officials at the Auditor General's office could best be
summed up in this observation contained in the report.
These are in the main -
"A slow response by
those charged with governance to our message of
embracing their responsibility to guide and direct the
development and performance of a strong system of
internal controls in ministries, departments and
agencies (MDAs).
This includes improving
their oversight function, demonstrating effective and
ethical leadership, strengthening the audit committees
and insisting on credible and regular reports on the
finances and activities of MDAs.
A lack of consequences
for poor performance and transgressions in general
government. This is evident from the inadequate response
to the high levels of unauthorised, irregular as well as
fruitless and wasteful expenditure, as detailed in the
audit report in other paragraphs indirectly supporting
the opinion; and the weaknesses in performance
management, which include a lack of credible and
effective performance management systems across MDAs.
The action of the
executive arm of Government towards the implementation
of the recommendations in the report of the
Auditor-General, a report debated and approved by
Parliament, has not been very effective in achieving the
goals of improving public financial management reforms
in Sierra Leone.
Therefore the
incidences of financial indiscipline continue to
persist.
The challenge we face
is that when our report is sent to Parliament our
elected representatives, meeting in committee, do not
always demand a full accounting from officials for the
issues raised.
Parliamentary promotion
of transparency in public administration and good
governance is perhaps not as effective as it might be.
This has forced us to consider why we are not having
sufficient impact when it comes to audit findings and
recommendations.
(Is RASS-in Bundu and J
F Kamara reading/listening?)
This is indeed a
desperate cry from the guardians of the country's
economic security. It is a cry for the needed action
from all those whose duties include the pursuance and
prosecution of all those found wanting, of all those who
have been shown in the various reports of stealing the
people's resources with impunity.
This is a wake-up call
to the three arms of governance - State House,
Parliament and the Judiciary lest Sierra Leone slips
into a failed state.
The new report should
be looked at more closely by all those in whose hands
the integrity of the country are held and the government
of the rat needs to take more than a closer look.
It needs to take a
second, if not a third reading to understand the message
contained in the Auditor General's report for 2014. A
government that is worth its salt would see that this
report reminds it of its obligations to the people,
their needs, their ambitions and their dreams that they
would just love to be in a country they could feel is
theirs and that their voices are hears when it comes to
making Sierra Leone a better place for all.
This report, as in
previous ones, shows that the stealing of the peoples
resources is now been done on an industrial scale using
all and any devious methods to siphon funds and assets
into individual pockets, property and accounts.
One part of the report
shows how nasty these tactics can be - of how bids are
split to evade open contracts and bids.
Procurement - The
following were observed;
It was observed that
procurement of assorted goods and services, undertaken
in various ministries worth Le1.27 billion, were split
in an apparent effort to evade the requirement for
national competitive bidding. Procurement documents were
not presented in respect of goods and services procured
valued at Le648 million by various ministries during the
period under review. As well as breaching national
procurement law, the failures to apply proper
procurement processes would have led to value for money
not being achieved and a waste of limited government
resources.
The lack of
accountability runs through it all. Take this for
example.
Defence procurement -
Some findings stand out as especially egregious and need
to be highlighted. In November 2013, the former Minister
of Defence acting on behalf of the Government entered
into agreements for the procurement and supply of 126
common use and specialised vehicles in two lots of 69
and 57 with two suppliers involving the sums of
US$10,654,168 and US$5,058,368 respectively.
A number of issues were
identified with this procurement:
Of the 126 vehicles
ordered only 49 were delivered leaving a balance of 77
outstanding. A comparison of the invoice prices, the
NPPA price norm, current market prices and prices of
similar vehicles procured by other government agencies,
disclosed that the vehicles were overpriced by Le30
billion (US$6.1 million).
This was a clear
manifestation of total disregard for the principle of
economy in the use of public funds by those acting on
behalf of the Government in the contract agreements.
Some of the vehicles delivered did not match the
specification in the contract agreement.
For example, two
ambulances were supplied instead of mini-buses. Two
defective vehicles were returned to the supplier and up
to the time of writing this report the vehicles, valued
at $620,000, have not been replaced or fixed by the
contractor. There were other deviations in specification
as well.
Although the contract
required that “all taxes, levies and other expenses …”
be borne by the supplier, there was no evidence that
duty amounting to Le9.7 billion was paid. Even though
the contract agreement stipulated that “the suppliers
shall provide servicing parts for a period of one-year”,
there was no evidence to confirm that the suppliers had
complied or that these spares were ever provided to MOD.
Kindly read this bit
from the report - "We estimate there has been cash
losses to the public purse of Le140,513,297,368. As in
previous years this has occurred for a number of
reasons, some inter-related suggesting strongly that
public financial management has much room for
improvement in all MDAs.
For example: Monies
allocated to some MDAs are not accounted for at all.
Payments without adequate supporting documents persists
in almost all the MDAs. Monthly bank reconciliations are
not carried out in some MDAs, this is a fundamental
failure of internal control over cash and banking
procedures and the control should also be undertaken by
persons with no access to the physical cash or bank
statements.
There are significant
weaknesses in the management of revenue in most revenue
generating entities.
For instance,
transferring funds to NRA is subject to unnecessary
delay; We noted that in many cases, withholding taxes
were not being deducted from suppliers or contractors’
payments.
Several significant
lapses were observed in procurement procedures resulting
in incomplete transactions and hence unsatisfactory
service delivery.
Moneys intended to be
managed by imprest accounts are not properly closed out
or accounted for with the result that control over
imprest accounts is weak and analyzing and posting
expenditure accurately to ledger accounts is seriously
impaired.
Fixed assets, stores
and fuel records are not adequately recorded in
applicable registers and other records. In addition,
although there has been some improvement over the years,
there are still significant seemingly reluctance in
making available requested documents to our audits for
review.
The extent to which our
recommendations for improvement in controls remain
unimplemented is not acceptable and many entities have
failed to make adequate, if any, responses to our
findings. The findings, expanded upon in greater detail
below, do not inspire confidence that resources are
being managed optimally with due regard for economy,
efficiency or effectiveness or fully in accordance with
the intent of Parliament.
Our missions abroad as
usual are a nest of thieving vipers who do not think
twice in harvesting whatever funds they can get from the
peoples' purse. Here's one small item in the nest as are
to be found in one of our missions.
"A payment of $26,090
was made to a hotel as advance booking for the
presidential working visit to United States of America –
Washington DC. In addition, an amount of $20,000 was
received by the embassy from the state chief of
protocol, as refund of expenses relating to the
presidential entourage, this was used to offset part of
the hotel bills as per instruction by the head of
chancery, and cash payment was then made to the hotel.
The total payment made
by the embassy was $46,093, which included expenses
relating to other delegates who were not part of the
presidential entourage. However, there was no evidence
to prove that those delegates reimbursed the embassy for
bills paid on their behalf. It was recommended that all
such transactions must be done through the banking
system and recorded appropriately in the books of
accounts. The HOC should also clarify the issue of the
other delegates not reimbursing the embassy for
expenditure incurred on their behalf.
(See
some excerpts from the report)
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