By Hassan Osman Kargbo
The Freetown City Council (FCC) has debunked a lot of issues that brought up by the Tribunal report on the suspended Auditor-General.
According to a press release from FCC dated 4th September 2024, the Council had gone through the report and they noted that section 248-257 under the caption: Failure to Conduct Proper Audit Exercise at the Freetown City for the Financial Year 2020 and the council wished to make the following clarifications:
The FCC Financial Statements for the year ended 31st December 2022 had been audited by Audit Service Sierra Leone (ASSL) and an unqualified audit opinion was issued. Copies of the audited FCC Financial Statement are available at their office, adding that FCC has always subjected itself and provided its fullest cooperation to external audit exercise conducted by ASSL and would continued to do so as provided by law.
It continued that majority of transform Freetown projects implemented for and on behalf of Freetown City Council in 2020 had been donor funded. Almost all the Transform Freetown projects that were donor funded were implemented by Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), meaning that none of those funds came to FCFC. Those Transform Freetown projects that were implemented by FCC were fully reflected in the FCC Financial Statements that were audited by ASSL.
It adding that the FCC had not received any concerns from its donors about corruption or the mismanagement of funds. FCC had never made a repayment of funds in respect of Transform Freetown projects. The effectiveness of the delivery of Transform Freetown projects had been well documented in detailed annual reports that are publicly available on FCC’s official website (https://fcc.gov.sl./transform-freetown/). In fact, FCC is proud to say that many of its donors had used Transform Freetown projects as example of best practice both nationally and internationally
It admitted that in 2022, Parliament commissioned a special audit of the Transform Freetown projects. The audit went on for six months. Although FCC is yet to receive the report of that special audit, they are confident that it would provide clarification on the implementation of Transform Freetown projects and lay to rest any misconceptions or suggestions of mismanagement.
It stated that FCC maintained that credibility and independent external audit exercise are critical tools to provide an independent assessment of our programmes and uphold accountability and transparency in delivering services to Freetonians. They remain open to that typed of scrutiny as they seek to transform Freetown and transform lives.
