SINCE the official release of the 2022 Auditor General’s Report by Audit Service Sierra Leone, all has not been well with us at FORUM. One of the media houses preoccupied with the task of reporting financial mismanagement of subventions that are annually allocated to Ministries Departments and Agencies, as represented in the 2022 Report.

WITH that focus, the newspaper has been brought under extreme pressure from heads of defaulter MDAs. Some called in defence of detailed accounts of public finance expenditures/account about their MDAs. Others call with intents of intimidations and mostly threatened with legal actions, while some have already taken us to the Independent Media Commission for merely reporting on their financial misappropriations. Some poorly performed agencies have also come down heavily on us at our 29 Rawdon Street office, with attempt to silent the paper – FORUM its editors, by way of fetish attacks, which were all well braved. These emerging challenges from ‘corrupt’ public sector operatives stem as result of the paper’s stance in serving as an appendage to ASSL, and by extension for only reporting what was published by the ASSL 2022 Report for better public understanding, which is the perceived wrong doing the paper is being charged for.

SO where has FORUM gone wrong?

WHERE is the paper getting it wrong that warrants defaulters MDAs whose names we have decided to withheld due to ethical considerations. But should the threats continue we shall be boldly naming and shaming them in subsequent editions for the records.

MUCH as we are concerned as media house doing out bit in the fight against corruption, we have tasks to perform as enshrined in the grand norm of the land. So, we can’t be cowed intimidations for we owe it the nation to provide the publics with accurate, reliable and timely information as required by law.

WE are mere reporters of the unfolding national even with specific reference to the 2022 Auditor General’s Report. And considering out thirst for news, we are still consuming the filthiest public document ever in the history of Audit Reports. What are reported in the public document in question – ASSL 2022 Audit Report, make much news for public interests… and we are therefore reporting exactly what was published by the Auditor General of ASSL in the 2022 Audit Report.

WE have not added nor have we distorted or misrepresented the document under review which we can never do.

AS part of our ordeals in the hands of certain heads of MDAs, in our relentless drive in assisting the Audit Service and government, in naming and shaming defaulter MDAs, FORUM is being falsely labelled, primed and framed as an anti-government and a pro-opposition media outlet. To an extent that some government media handlers have enlisted together other media house, for which they have exempted FORUM and other print media outlets from receiving government adverts in the name of they being tagged as opposition newspapers. That is not true.

OUR records there at IMC do not represent partisan interests. In fact, we registered with the IMC in 2017-2018 as a media and general business entity, with FORUM newspaper as one of our platforms.

WE are not a mouthpiece of any politician neither a political organ.

WE cover national politics because it is concerns every one of us as taxpayers, from whose moneys the politicians are being paid. So our mouths are where our monies are being spent, which is why we checkmate the roles, functions and responsibilities of politicians in our reports/coverages.

WE have no interests in who governs who and where but remained much concerned about deliverables to Sierra Leoneans and friends of the country.

The Auditor General’s Report has always being the official account of government’s fiscal expenditures on MDAs, should not be frown at all by heads of defaulting MDAs. Neither, should reporters on the Audit Report be victimised by ‘corrupt’ heads of MDAs reporting it. The whole process should be embraced by all and sundry as key aspect of democratic good governance, transparency and accountability.

The facts that the 2022 Auditor General’s Report it highlights gross mismanagement of public finance by MDAs, call for urgent action by government through the chief anti-corruption campaigner the – presidency to up its game in fighting corruption. Public sector corruption is disgraceful and it keeps reversing gains made in the crusade over the years. Auditor General’s Report year in and out, always expose glaring public sector corruption, which are not addressed by succeeding governments. That also tells that corruption is not perpetuated by petty traders, but by highly educated government workers. So going by presidential campaign vows made by President Julius Maada Bio in 2018 to address corruption must be seen honoured by the Chief Executive. It can be done by taking firm actions against defaulter MDAs to end the culture of impunity in the fight against corruption, rather always resorting to out of court settlements with refunds.

Government as a state institution can never work in isolation, but with the people through representatives; be it in the House of Parliament or elsewhere within state governance structure. No doubt we have the Parliamentary Public Account Committee, charged with the mandate of also probing heads of MDAs for their failures to comply with rules governing the handlings of annual allocations to their respective agencies. Expenditures and financial irregularities in the use of funds to public sector offices across the country must be fully accounted for at all levels. So the role being played by FORUM is aimed at cascading governing information to the level of the least reader through our coverage on what is exactly published in the 2022 Auditor General’s Report on the Financial Account of Sierra Leone. By so doing we are helping PAC and ASSL to expose defaulters and ‘corrupt’ MDAs who flouted rules of procedures governing the uses of public finances that are allocated to them annually by the line Ministry of Finance.

As we continue with review of the 2022 Auditor General’s Report, FORUM encourages MDAs to develop thick skin and correct their mistakes by complying with rules and procedures governing uses of public finance that are allocated to them annually