By Alusine Fullah

As a way to minimize if not to stop mismanagement of public funds in Ministries Departments and Agencies in the country, the Auditor General whose mandate is to check and cross-check the activities of different institutions has issued its 2022 Audit report and has brought to light the dubious activities of the Kambia District Council. In line with that, according to Audit report 2022, three boats with outboard machines and five HL Honda motorbikes were not put into proper use by the council.  The Audit Report exposes:

Boats and Motorbikes not Put into Use The Council entered into a contract in March 2022 under the EU Project for the construction of three boats with outboard machines. During the verification of this activity, we observed that even though the boats had been completed, paid for, and handed over to the Council on 25th April 2022, it has not been put into operation. We further observed that, the boats’ 40HP outboard machines which were fully paid for and allegedly delivered to the Council on 25th April 2022 costing SLE195,000 were still with the contractor. Five XL Honda motorbikes costing SLE325,000 donated to the Council by the UNDP, were not distributed to the beneficiaries, and no justification was given by the Council for failing to distribute them.

Therefore, the delay in putting these assets into use could not only result in additional costs incurred on maintaining them but also deprive the communities of services that would have been rendered from their use.