By: Sulaiman Aruna Sesay

The 2022 Auditor General report for Sierra Leone exposed several irregularities and mismanagement within the Ministry of Social Welfare. The report highlighted inadequate financial management, lack of accountability, and negligence on the part of the Ministry in carrying out its responsibilities.

The Auditor General’s report discovered that the Ministry did not carry out an effective monitoring and evaluation of its programs. This resulted in sub-standard service delivery, duplication of efforts, and inadequate impact assessment of the programs.

The AG’s report revealed several areas where the Ministry of Social Welfare got it all wrong. These areas include, Artificially Procurement Splitting; Using Request for Quotation Method instead of National Competitive Bidding, Irregularities in the Management of Fleets, and Mismanagement of fixed assets among others.

The AG’S report observed that, on the procurement of hotel accommodation for staff of the Post-Ebola Recovery Social Investment Fund (PERSIF) Project worth SLE110,375, the Senior Procurement Officer issued two set of request quotation (RFQ) to the same bidder. According to the AG’S report, this was an attempt to divide the procurement into lower values in order to avoid the NCB procurement method and award the contract to the same service provider. The AG’s report added that, the RFQs submitted were from two bidders and these were not completed and signed. The local purchase orders were not signed by the service provider.

In an official response from the Ministry of Social Welfare,  they stated that, “For the Procurement of Accommodation for PERSIF project, there were two activities combined which are goods and services respectively, and because both were needed one should have been without the other and considering the margin the entity decided implement”.

The AG’s report also brought to light the mismanagement of fleets. According to the AG’s report, the following were discovered: four vehicles were not made available for audit verification; the team discovered that the Ministry’s vehicles had expired insurance coverage, there was significant discrepancy between the number of life cards submitted by the Ministry and the total count of owned vehicles and motorbikes. The Ministry’s records indicated ownership of 19 vehicles and 47 motorbikes, but life cards were only submitted for seven vehicles. Of the seven life cards examined, we observed that five of them were registered in the names of donors and not the Ministry. The AG’s report that, thirty-two motorbikes donated to the Ministry in 2021 were neither registered with the Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority (SLRSA), nor insured with an insurance company.

Official response from the Ministry of Social Welfare stated that, Unverified Vehicles- the background of the four unverified vehicles is as follows: the vehicle assigned to the former Minister of Social Welfare has not been handed over to the Ministry to date. The vehicle handed over to the Deputy Minister of Social Welfare has been bought according to the letter written to the owner. Details of procedures and processes could be traced to the Ministry of Transport and Aviation. The vehicle with registration number AJX 021 is parked at a garage off Kingharman Road.

The vehicle with registration number AMA 414 has been with the Sierra Leone Association of Ebola survivors (SLAES) since 2017 and their contact numbers not reachable. Insurance coverage-evidence of request letter for the insurance and license of those vehicles is available for verification. Life Cards and the Total Count of Vehicles- life cards for remaining 12 vehicles were burnt down in a fire incident in 2019. The life cards for the 47 motorbikes were not handed over to the Ministry by donor partner. The request for invoices for life cards bearing the Ministry’s ownership has been sent to the SLRSA. The list of users’ names is almost complete except for Kono and Kailahun.

The 2022 Auditor General report exposed how the Ministry of Social Welfare in Sierra Leone has been neglecting its responsibilities, mismanaging funds, and failing to account for its expenditure. The report highlighted several issues that require immediate attention and action to prevent further mismanagement of public funds and improve the delivery of social services in the country.