By Nasratu Kargbo
Deputy Speaker of the Sierra Leone Parliament Ibrahim Tawa Conteh says investigations done by the law making institution uncovered acts of spending outside the allocated and approved budget by the Ministry of Finance (MoF).
Conteh made the claims on Monday this week during questioning of representatives of the MoF by the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee chaired by the deputy speaker.
He said the ministry over spent without presenting a supplementary budget to parliament, which he said contravened the constitution of Sierra Leone which forbids spending outside the allocated and approved budget.
“We want to put an end on budget overruns because it affects the overall budget”.
MoF overran their salaries, transport allowance, and other allowances amounting to Two million, five hundred and eighty seven thousand, six hundred and twenty-four Leones, seventy-eight cents (2,587,624.78), one hundred and twenty-two thousand three hundred and fifty-three Leones fifty-one cents (122,353.51), and fifteen million seven hundred and fifteen thousand five hundred and fifty-seven Leones twenty-seven cent (15, 715,557.27) respectively.
The ministry reportedly spent these monies despite having their allocated budget.
Conteh said that the constitution states that nobody has the right to spend a dime outside of what they approve as parliament without following the procedure of going back to parliament. He mentioned that section 112 of the constitution states that for any supplementary budget, it should be brought to parliament for their approval.
He emphasized that after thorough investigation he will rely on section 121 to allocate the cost to those responsible and ensure it is deducted from their salaries until the money is fully paid into the consolidated fund. Conteh promised to monitor and ensure the instructions are followed, but however gave them time to present documents to justify their overruns.
Deputy Leader of the Opposition 2 Aaron Aruna Koroma said the justification for overspending should be legal, stressing that the Ministry should respect the laws of parliament.
Moyamba District Member of Parliament Mustapha M. Sellu said the MoF also contravened the Public Financial Management Act 2016, insisting there was no justification for exceeding the money that was allocated without an approval from parliament.
Sellu was baffled, asking why should there be an overrun on payment of salaries when the salaries and staff number remains the same, explaining that salaries are fixed and that every person is paid according to their grade.
MoF officials in reaction admitted of gross under- budgeting.
When responding to questions of where they got the mandate to overspend, they stated that the constitution gives the Minister the leeway under contingency to spend certain amount without getting to parliament, but they were immediately corrected by the deputy speaker who asserted that the minister only has the right to spend for an unforeseen need with the endorsement by parliament.
They also argued that the Human Resource Management Office (HRMO) submits budget for payroll per ministry and that when they do so the salary cost is usually three to four times higher than the actual cost MoF has budget for salaries.
They also stated that there has not been any salary increment over the past five years or increase in staff and blamed the overrun on staff being transferred to their ministry, though they could not produce any evidence to such an excuse.
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