By Dadson A. Musa
At Sahara hotel in Bo, a three- day event which started on the 24th and ended on the 26th March 2022.The Deputy Directors and their Finance Officers were drawn from across the country to be trained on proper audit, procurement and standard accounting practices.
The training was necessitated by the constant audit reports over the years which point to lapses in the financial and store keeping practices of district education offices across the country.
It was sponsored by UNICEF as part of its support to the education sector.
The Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education organized the three- day event and facilitators were drawn from NPPA, Audit Service Sierra Leone and Ministry of Finance.
The training had three objectives, namely; to strengthen the knowledge and skills of key staff of MBSSE in basic financial management practices, identify beneficiaries and proffer possible remedial measures with the view to improving financial management practices in the general operations of the ministry and enhance effective and efficient management of public funds through sound monitoring, evaluation and reporting mechanism in the implementation of projects/ programs of the ministry.
The Deputy Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education 2 in the ministry, Mamusu Massaquoi in her brief statement reminded the gathering that they intend “to reduce mismanagement and at the same time strengthen staff capacity”.
That over the years they realized that there has been “poor accountability”.
And that they hope to cascade it to heads of schools in future. The chairman, internal audit in the ministry, Dr. Mohamed Komba Kamanda said that the training intends to” close the gap in audit issues that arose from poor accountability”. Josephine Scott, who is Finance Officer of the Bo district office said that the training is ” timely and will enhance their effectiveness and efficiency”.
In closing, the UNICEF representative, Bunting Williams said that the ministry must always “put their books in order” and account properly for monies given to them by donors. And that when spot checks are conducted they will never be found wanting.
