The Ministry of Finance has recently commended the Acting Auditor General of Sierra Leone, Mr Abdul Aziz for TV the release of the Auditor General’s Report 2021. The Ministry indicates actions that will be taken to ensure MDAs address the issues and implement the recommendations in the report. The report was submitted to Parliament in December 2021 in line with section 119 sub-section 4 of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone, which stipulates that the Auditor General should submit his report to Parliament by the 31st of December. However, the Acting Auditor-General was able to submit the 2021 audit report to Parliament on 8th December 2022. As a result of the good work of the Acting Auditor General and the Audit Service Sierra Leone, the Ministry of Finance has decided to take action on the implementation of the issues in the 2021 Audit Report.
According to a release issued by the Ministry of Finance on 3rd February 2021, the Ministry is working with various stakeholders including the Audit Service Sierra Leone and the Anti-Corruption Commission to develop a holistic and coordinated approach to address the issues raised in the Auditor General’s Report 2021.
It states that appropriate actions will be taken against all process owners, vote controllers, accountants, procurement officers etc both past and present, mentioned in the Audit Report.
It is worth noting that the actions to be taken by Government will include the application of Section 23 of the Finance Act 2022 which amends Section 13 of the Public Financial Management Act 2016, by the provision of a new sub-section 6 stipulating that “Notwithstanding this act or any other law where the vote controller or other responsible person of an (a) budgetary agency; (b) sub-vented agency; (c) other entity in the central government (d) local council; (e) social security fund; or (f) public enterprises fail to implement or respond to the internal and external audit recommendations within thirty working days from the effective date of the publication or issuance of the report, his remuneration, fees and allowances shall be withheld subject to the authorization of the minister until the vote controller, or other responsible person, implements the internal and external audit recommendations.”
The Ministry of Finance is presently compiling a schedule by public sector entities detailing audit issues, responsible officers and action points for the consideration of the Hon. Minister of Finance.
The release further assures the general public that the Ministry is carefully looking at the report to take the required actions to ensure that the audit issues raised are adequately and appropriately addressed and that the public will be informed of actions taken to ensure that audit recommendations are implemented accordingly to improve the overall public financial management in Sierra Leone.