By Sulaiman Jalloh

Parliament of Sierra Leone, through the Parliamentary Public Account Committee (PAC) chaired by the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Ibrahim Tawa Conteh, has announced the need for third-party auditor to audit the National Revenue Authority (NRA).

The Deputy Speaker made the announcement on Wednesday, February 5, 2025, at the administrative building conference room in Parliament while probing into audit queries raised in the 2023 Audit Report concerning the National Revenue Authority. He said subsection 7 of Section 119 of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone gives the President power, through the cabinet, to authorize a third-party auditor, saying, “We are going to proceed with audit verification.”

During the engagement, NRA disputed all the numbers presented by the audit. This prompted the Deputy Speaker to announce third-party Auditors to conduct a special auditing on the NRA.

It could be recalled that Hon. Ibrahim Tawa Conteh had announced earlier this year that the PAC would go beyond the audit report to make sure they recover government monies from corrupt officials who have embezzled state resources.

According to the 2023 Auditor General’s Report, taxpayers’ liabilities were not announced by the NRA. “During the review and recalculation of taxpayers’ liabilities, we observed that tax liabilities of NLe 114,727,344 were owed to the government of Sierra Leone. The outstanding balance is not part of the revenue disclosed in the Financial Statement” the report says. They, however, recommend that ‘the management of the NRA improve in the collection of these tax liabilities and that all domestic revenue arrears are included in the Financial Statement as required by Regulation 73(1) of the PFM Regulations, 2018’.

After a thorough engagement, the staff of the National Revenue Authority challenged the report of the Auditor General. Even though they presented some documents to the Public Account Committee, Members of Parliament were not convinced of their justifications.

Hon. Ibrahim Tawa Conteh said they are going to have an independent verification of those numbers while assuring that they would do it in consultation with the Audit Service in whom he said the powers to audit are vested. He added they contract firms to do so by using the funds allocated by the government to the PAC.

“Considering the current area of contention as to the validation of numbers. Where I have doubt, I would have to refer to the appropriate authority to ensure that to improve faith we have an independent expert to would work alongside the two bodies recommended in a list of recognized firms provided to us by Audit service among whom we are going to select one depending on their credibility” the chairman underscored, emphasizing that it was subsection 7 of section 119 that was evoked when the forensic Audit was done.

He furthered that the purpose of the third party is to confirm between NRA and Audit Service who is right or wrong.

He concluded by saying the committee would engage with Audit Service and come out with resolutions.