March 17, 2021
By Mohamed M. Sesay
Honorable Members of the Public Account Committee in Parliament have yesterday the 16th of March, rebuked the leadership of the University of Sierra Leone, which constitutes Fourah Bay College (FBC), Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM) and College of Medicine for not providing supporting documents of five billion four hundred and ninety-five million Leones.
The Public Accounts Committee has also picked bones with the University for Failure to pay NASSIT and the National Revenue Authority PAYE Tax during the Auditing period of 2017-2019.
Briefing galaxy of Members of Parliament during the Public Hearing, the Deputy Auditor General Mohamed Mustapha intimated that the University of Sierra Leone has not provided adequate document relating to payment of NASSIT, PAYE tax and also did not follow the due process of the procurement laws.
He provided specific examples of Value Point Enterprise with total invoice of fifty-nine million six hundred thousand Leones, and TAP-TECH Printing with total invoice of fifty-nine million eight hundred thousand Leones respectively.
Mohamed Mustapha added that revenue recognition continues to be very troublesome area in the financial reporting regime at Fourah Bay College, adding that the main explanation was that, the registry and the exams offices did not corporate in availing the list of registered students on a timely basis and even when they often do, he said, it is always inadequate.
He further stated that Fourah Bay College lacks corporate governance problem and unavailability of a prepared financial statement, failure to implement both internal and external audit recommendation as it relate to the financial statement is also a serious weakness with the governance arrangement of the University
He continued that the Audit Report makes it very clear that the consolidated financial statement prepared by the University secretariat was not supported by the financial statement prepared by the arms of the university. Also referencing the 2017 Audit Report, Mohamed Mustapha noted that they observed that the financial statement of the secretariat which threatens the financial stability of the University Secretariat. He lamented that they had a deficit of 12.796 billion Leones, net liability for the years was 30.6 billion Leones, accumulated loses brought forward was 10.9 billion Leones and the net liability increased from 2016-2017 to a colossal of 114%.
While addressing the leadership of the University of Sierra Leone, Deputy Speaker of Parliament who also doubles as the Chairman of the Committee Hon Segepoh Thomas, intimated that the audits are conducted towards the end of the year and therefore, if USL had pay the NASSIT, PAYE taxes and provided supporting documents to the auditing team, these issues would not have come up against the University.
He advised the University Secretariat to settle their liabilities once they received their subventions before the auditors visit the institutions in future.
Hon. Thomas also averred that the Auditor Generals’ Report has been used as a political weapon and therefore craved on the indulgence of heads Of MDAs not to create the situation for Auditor General’s report to be weaponized. He added that those are the issues that go on social media that create very damning impression about institutions.
Hon. Thomas questioned: “If you can pay your salaries in 2018 then what if somebody at the end of the day retires and goes to NASSIT, there will always be a gap in payment of their NASSIT. And all of these problems are coming up not so prof?
He added: “May be in a situation you too must have retired in 2018 and you go to NASSIT there is a whole gap about payment of your NASSIT. Let us try to address some of these issues so that they don’t create embarrassment. These are the issues we do not joke with as a committee. We don’t joke with matters relating to payment to NASSIT or payment to NRA…”
He continued that they as members of Parliament normally summon Heads of MDAs to proffer relevant answers in connection to the Audit Report, noting that when Auditors go to MDAs and require documents from them, it behooves them to submit those documents at the time when the auditors are auditing their institutions.
He added that as a committee established by law, it is their responsibility to look at the real issue pointing out that the duty of the committee is to look at all of the issues and arrive at fine conclusions for the benefit of the public.
In her response to members of Parliament and the Deputy Auditor General, the Finance Director of the University of Sierra Leone Waltina Mackay observed that they sometimes failed to address the NASSIT issue because the Sierra Leone Government Grant-In-Aid are not normally paid on time.
She added that the University does not even have enough to pay salaries and even the money government allot as subventions are equally not enough to meet the salary payment.
She added that as a secretariat of the university, they take responsibility of payment of all salaries to senior staff and the Secretariat which is the more reason why they are always running at a loss.
She furthered that the subventions and payment of Grant-In-Aid by government have been accumulated over time and because the Secretariat did not have sufficient fund to run, that has definitely militated against the operation of the secretariat.
She said they have been engaging government over the above mentioned issues but up to now they have not received any subvention from government which is the very reason the secretariat is in more indebted and incurring loss. She disclosed that they have been salvaging the situation using the meager resources raised in taking care of allowances, ex-gratia and other staff welfare issues.