By Sulaiman Jalloh
Parliament through the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Ibrahim Tawa Conteh, who doubles as the Chairman of the Public Account Committee (PAC), has, on Monday, 10th June, 2024 at the Parliament Building on Tower Hill in Freetown, started hearings on the Audit Report 2022.
The said audit report started with the Ministry of Finance (MoF), National Revenue Authority (NRA) and the Accountant General.
Making his opening remarks, Hon. Ibrahim Tawa Conteh welcomed all attendees and stated that the sitting was geared to lending credence to the law. He further noted that the audit report is not a criminal report and hence auditees are encouraged to attend and appear before Parliament, but also noted that the Committee cannot be intimidated. Section 93 Act. No 6 of the 1991 Constitution, the lawmaker went on, established the Public Account Committee which is a parliamentary oversight committee that has the mandate and powers to look into an audit report every fiscal year.
During the hearing, the Committee through the Deputy Auditor General, Moray Lansana disclosed that the Ministry of Finance without any permission or authorization exceeded its 2022 budget allocation by spending a total of 105NLe billion exceeding the 95NLe billion that was allocated in the budget for the Ministry.
Hon. Ibrahim Tawa Conteh therefore asked representatives of the ministry to explain which mandate and authority it used to exceed the budget allocation without the due process of going to Parliament for approval, stressing that there are no sections in the 1991 Constitution and the Public Finance Management (PFM) Act that mandate an MDA to over spend exceeding the approved budget. “The Ministry of Finance has breached the 1991 Constitution,” the firebrand politician asserted. He furthered that MoF was found wanting for overspending on transport allowance which was over 122NLe billion, stressing that the ministry is not efficient, and therefore vowed to penalize MoF for over spending, if relevant documents to efficiently justify the expenses are not submitted.
The Committee also discovered that the Ministry of Finance used 35NLe millions on travel and stationery, exceeding the 4 million new Leones allocated to the ministry for such activities. Hon. Tawa Conteh maintained that the ministry would be penalised, adding that the consequences of breaching the Constitution is treasonable. He also questioned the Human Resource Management Office (HRMO) for disbursing money to the ministry that was above its budget allocation.
The Deputy Director of Budget, Jecob Tenga Sesay of the Ministry of Finance attempted to justify that there was a change of leadership of the Principal Accountant.
Hon. Tawah Conteh however disregarded his justification, stressing that the ministry was not legitimate and at the same time breached Section 116 of the Constitution. The Chairman therefore promised to take action against the ministry by deducting the salaries of personnel involved until it gets to the amount overrun if the ministry fails to provide the necessary documents. “We are going to share this cost among you for a period of six months,” the lawmaker averred.
The Chairman had no option but to stand down the ministry and assured to continue with the hearing on the following day because most of the documents requested by PAC were not submitted by the ministry despite the long notice.
Other representatives of the ministry made mention of contingency expenses including basic salaries, transfer of personnel, transport allowances and salary increments.
Making his submission, the Deputy Leader 2 of the opposition All Peoples Congress (APC), Hon. Aaron Aruna Koroma, expressed dismay for what he considered as a failure on the part of the Ministry of Finance to submit other crucial documents, stressing that the ministry should be the arbiter of best practices when it comes to financial matters but not the other way round.
Copyright –Published in print in Expo Times Newspaper on Wednesday, June 12th , 2024 (ExpoTimes News – Expo Media Group (expomediasl.com)
