By: Thaimu Bai Sesay
The Anti-Corruption Commissioner Francis Ben Kaifala, has commended the tremendous efforts of the Auditor General and team for an excellent job done in the execution of their functions in their respective offices. As partners with existing bilateral relationship, the Commissioner assured to continue working with them in improving Audit Reports and actions to be instituted on Audit Reports. He extended his appreciation to the Parliament of Sierra Leone for its mandate and collaboration with the ACC in fighting issues of corruption in the country.
ACC Commissioner described the 2021 Audit Reports as a “Green Picture” showcasing how institutions are stealing public resources. He said the report like all other reports is almost the same, year in year out. The commissioner went on stating that most of the issues presented in the 2021 Audit Report emanated from administrative lapses. He said majority of the officials in those institutions that are supposed to supervise their staff and ensure that certain information are provided to the Auditors ended up failing to do so or did not provide sufficient supervision.
Francis Ben Kaifala underscored the resilient and systematic process of the Auditors in doing their job which he described to be methodical. He said they are very procedural to the extent that they provide official communication to inform when they would be coming to audit an institution and to also rectify issues found out with necessary explanations.
In the face of all that, he doubted why people still failed to perform their functions saying “as a country we have to be a little bit more serious of our destinies; as public officials we have to be a little bit more serious with our responsibilities and we have to hold ourselves accountable and hold people accountable”, he said.
ACC Commissioner disclosed that as a result of failure of administrative responsibilities at some levels, the 2021 Audit Report has presented to the ACC an estimated loss of 5.6 billion for 14 councils alone in Sierra Leone. He statistically called out some of the districts with their respective loss including Portloko District City Council, Freetown City Council, Moyamba, Koinadugu, Portloko, Makeni, Kambia, Tonkolili and others which were not identified during the press conference.
He went on stating the various institutions identified in the report with their respective estimated loss. 18 institutions were identified with an estimated loss of 5.6 billion Leones, plus 132,000 United States Dollars and those institutions entail almost all the Government Ministries. The other category identified include BSL, NRA, NASSIT, EDSA, SLPA, SLRA, SLRTC, NMA, Petroleum Directorate, Civil Aviation, and many others with their respective estimated loss. He identified other categories in the report which have to do with Diplomatic Missions, Parliamentary Service Committee, and Security Partners and ended with the general category.
The Commissioner however affirmed that the commission has critically ascertained the various issues involved in the report which he identified some to be straight forward. He assured that those issues would be resolved expeditiously as the ACC would be inviting those people to provide reasonable explanation on the same day or in not more than two days. He gave examples of quick fix issues which the commission has already started dealing with and others which it is going to be investigated in shortest possible time.
He expressed his dismay and despondency in the inefficacy of some people in the execution of their office duties. In every indication the ACC Commissioner assured that if proper accountability is not provided the law would take its full course. He encouraged people in different positions to be diligent in their jobs so as to prevent their appearance in the forthcoming Audit Reports.