By Nasratu Kargbo
The Office of the President together with some Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) spent an amount of thirty-three million, four thousand seven hundred and thirty thousand and seventy-six Leones (33,004,730.76) without any relevant documentary evidence, according to the Auditor General’s 2022 Report.
The report stated that there was no evidence such as payment vouchers, receipts, delivery notes, or expenditure returns to show how monies withdrawn were used. The report said, “Without the original records and documentation, the purpose for which the expenditure was incurred could not be ascertained, and these payments could have been misclassified in the General-Purpose Financial Statements (GPFSs)”.
In the report, Audit Service Sierra Leone explained that they reviewed withdrawals from imprest accounts from MDAs in a bid to assess whether the monies were spent for the intended purpose and in accordance with the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) of 2016.
The report states that the following MDAs: Office of the President, Ministries such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Lands, Housing and Country Planning, Ministry of Gender and Children's Affairs, Ministry of Youth Affairs, Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Affairs and Cabinet Secretariat did not provide any supporting documents to justify expenditure.
Amongst the monies that were withdrawn, the Office of the President withdrew the sum of Twenty-two million, five hundred and seventy thousand, four hundred and sixty-three Leones ( 22,570,463.00) whilst the Ministry of Health and Sanitation withdrew both Leones and United States Dollars each amounting to three million nine hundred and seventy-eight thousand nine hundred and thirty-four point sixty-six Leone (3,978,934.66) and One hundred and ninety-eight thousand two hundred and twenty-eight US dollars (198,228.44 )
Revealing findings made in the area of debts, the report explains that there has been an immense improvement in managing and reporting public debts for domestic arrears and external loans, but quickly stated that the level of external and domestic loans remains very high.
“The Public Debt Management Department (PDMD) has been working with the Bank of Sierra Leone and development partners to ensure that the risk of high debt service to total revenue is managed through refinancing and rollover of maturities,” a part reads.
The report further explains that as of 31st December 2022, the Government’s total outstanding public debt was forty-seven billion five hundred and seventy-seven million, three hundred and forty-five thousand eight hundred and seventy Leones ( 47,577,345, 870) which is 94% of the Gross Domestic Product.
“We noted that domestic revenue Eight billion, and eighty-eight million; three hundred and seventy-six thousand Leones (SLE8, 088,376,000) cannot meet the debt service obligation Fourteen Billion eight hundred and seventy-nine million, one hundred and forty-three thousand Leone (SLE14, 879,143,000) for 2022. This has resulted in the Ministry of Finance using other debt instruments to service debt obligation that fell due in 2022” a part reads.
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