The Public Account Committee in the Sierra Leone Parliament, chaired by the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Segepoh Solomon Thomas has commenced hearings on the Auditor General’s Report for 2022 at Committee Room 1 Parliament Building in Freetown.
The chairman said the witnesses were invited to Parliament to respond to the terrible audit queries and went on to emphasize the seriousness of the issues and allegations.
While addressing the government officials, especially the vote controllers the Deputy Speaker warned that nobody should volunteer to answer audit queries for those who were absent. He also admonished officials not to lie under oath, emphasising that perjury by law is seven years imprisonment.
He called on them to do the needful on the audit report.
The chairman said the public has always blamed Parliament for not treating audit reports well or not doing the right things. According to the Chairman, Parliament would take the audit report very seriously and it will act tough on it.
During the hearing, the Committee ordered the Chief Finance Officer of the Electricity Distribution Supply Authority (EDSA), to repay Forty-Eight Thousand Four hundred and fifty Leones (48450 NL) within 14 days as an audit query revealed that the latter made payment to organisations as CSOs without justification.
Also, the Committee discovered issues relating to Goods and Services Tax not paid to the National Revenue Authority. The Committee then ordered EDSA and NRA to reconcile and report on the matter within fourteen days to the Committee. On payment without supporting documents.
The Committee requested that the matter be dealt with by the Anti-Corruption Commission.
Other issues raised by the Audit Report on EDSA are; sustainability of services, ineffective management of prepaid revenue, inadequate controls, over the disbursement of funds, bank reconciliation, statements of bank accounts, poor controls over the management of receivables, differences identified in creditors’ balance, management, and security of the asset, management of inventory and issues identified during the provincial visit.
Another witness that appeared before the Committee was the Electricity Generation and Transmission Company (EGTC) officials based on the audit queries. The PAC requested that various heads of the Energy Ministry, EDSA and EGTC be invited to answer questions for unsolved audit queries in the next PAC hearings.
