By: Francis F. M. Harding
The Independent Media Commission (IMC) and seventeen other public institutions in Sierra Leone have failed to submit their financial statements for auditing, according to Audit Service Sierra Leone.
In a press release dated 23th August 2022, the Acting Auditor General of ASSL stated that the ASSL would like to inform the general public that the following institutions failed to submit their financial statements for the purpose of auditing. Nuclear Safety Radiation Protection Authority : 2021, Sierra Leone National Conservation Trust Fund: 2019 – 2021, Sierra Leone Housing Corporation: 2020 – 2021, Sierra Leone Postal Services Limited: 2019 – 2021, Sierra Leone Producing Marketing Company: 2018 – 2021, Sierra Leone State Lottery 2020 :2021, Sierra Leone Telecommunication Company: 2020 – 2021, Corporate Affairs Commission: 2021, Council of Legal Education – Sierra Leone Law School: 2021, Golden Tulip Essential Kimbima Hotel: 2021, Independent Media Commission: 2021, National Medical Supplies Agency: 2021, Sierra Leone Stock Exchange : 2020 – 2021, National Assets Commission: Since formation, National Drugs Control Agency: Since formation, National Pharmaceutical and Procurement Unit: Since formation and the Western Area Hospital Board since formation.
The Acting Auditor General of Sierra Leone concluded that the above institutions have failed their financial statements for auditing should therefore collectively account for huge amounts of monies generated or received as budgetary allocations/subventions.
In the entire world financial reports have always been very dull and mundane records of the state of affairs of an establishment. They often tend to indicate whether the institution is liquid, il-liquid or floating. To the practiced eye, financial reports offer advanced warning that the markets are vulnerable to change or that the trading environment may be structured in such a way as to impinge on the sustainability of a business.
Audit Service Sierra Leone is a critical government agency responsible for reporting on financial management of public fund. Their function has been made very public recently because of the fodder for public corruption that is contained in each audit report. It is clear that most of the cases cited in the Audit report, year in and year out, are replete with errors and omissions, have been explained in logical sequence or may have had no basis for inclusion in an audit.
Sierra Leoneans must consider what an audit report sets out to do, quite apart from its allusions to creating a pandemic on wastefulness and mismanagement of public funds. It is a technical document designed to form an opinion, one way or another or in some cases, withhold its opinion on the conduct of financial affairs within an organization with respect to its adherence to rules, practices and professional financial accounting guidelines.
With the power vested on the Acting Auditor General of Sierra Leone tends to disgrace with institutions that have failed to submit their financial statements for auditing. Section 119(2) of the 1991 Constitution mandates the Auditor-General to audit the Public Accounts of Sierra Leone and all public offices including the courts, the accounts of the central and local government administrations, of the universities and public institutions of like nature, any statutory corporation, company or other body or organisation established by an Act of Parliament or statutory instrument or otherwise set up partly or wholly out of Public Funds. Sections 86(1) and 118(1) (b) of the Public Financial Management Act 2016 state that the Annual Financial Statements of Public Enterprises, Commissions and Agencies shall be audited by the Auditor-General or other auditor appointed by him
