By Hassan Osman Kargbo

As way to hold government officials into account for their activities, the Auditor General report has issued its 2022 report and brought to light the corrupt scandal that the Ministry of Works had been through over the years. The report noted that contrary to Section 45(1&2) of the PPA of 2016, their examination of the financial records of the

Ministry revealed that items valued at SLE2, 476,302 were procured for various activities without alternative price quotations. In addition, the evaluation report and other supporting documents such as suppliers’ certificates of registration, certificates of incorporation, tax registration, and tax clearance certificates were not produced to substantiate procurement.As a result of the foregoing, the report recommended that the Senior Procurement Officer provide the relevant documents for audit inspection. ​ As such, the official response from the Ministry was those particular audit query was misdirected because all the requested documents were completed and supplied to the

Account Unit for the issuance of payments. Until the requested evidence in the form of three quotations, Local Purchase Order (LPO), evaluation reports, and other supporting documents are completely supplied to the account unit if not payment will not be made. Since the said payment has been effected, the Account Unit is in charge of the said documents​

However the Auditor’s Comment was that the Management’s response was noted. Nevertheless, they would like to bring to the attention of management that Request for Quotations (RFQ) and Local Purchase Order (LPO) must be handled by the Procurement Unit and not the Accounts Unit. During the verification, they were provided with RFQs and LPOs for amounts totalling SLE1, 833,302 representing 74% of the queried amount, leaving a balance of SLE643, 000. The issue is substantially resolved.

The report admitted that internal payment vouchers submitted which amounted to SLE6, 040,553 were without adequate supporting documents such as receipts, invoices, delivery notes, and contract agreements. This was contrary to Section 100(1) of the PFMR of 2018, and they recommended that the Principal Accountant should ensure that adequate documentary evidence to support the expended amounts is submitted for inspection. The official Response from the Ministry was the supporting documents with regard to the said transactions have been put together for Audi verification.​

And the Auditor’s Comment was they were provided with supporting documents relating to payments totalling SLE4, 639,743 which represented 77% of the queried amount, leaving a balance of SLE1, 400,810. The issue is substantially resolved.

​It continued that Section 31(1) of the GST Act of 2009 stipulates that a GST-registered supplier who makes taxable supplies is required, at the time of the supply, to issue the recipient with an original GST invoice, for the supply.

Contrary to the above provision, payment vouchers with an aggregate invoice value of SLE171,700 and an inputted GST of SLE22,396 revealed that payments were made to suppliers for taxable supplies, but no GST invoices were provided for audit inspection.

The report recommended that the Principal Accountant should provide evidence of the GST invoice to justify payments made to the NRA. Otherwise, the appropriate authorities would be advised for recovery of the payment.

​The Ministry Response was they did not deal with suppliers who are not registered with the NRA. All transactions are done with suppliers who prepare their monthly returns to the NRA. Going forward, GST invoices will be taken from suppliers.

The auditor’s Comment was Management’s response was noted. Their recommendations were however not implemented as evidence of GST invoices to justify payment made to the NRA was not provided for verification. The issue remains unresolved.

The report Furthered stated that the following were observed generally in the Ministry:

1) They physically verified the Ministry’s assets and observed that despite the fact that the Ministry had a budget for infrastructural maintenance, the Youyi Building lift which serves all the Ministries was not in operation during the period under review. This had caused a lot of problems for staff and visitors to get to the various offices.

2) The team noticed that several occupants including businesses are located at the Pademba Road Works Yard without paying rent.

3) A list of all registrations of petroleum storage facilities, wharfs, jetties, mini hydro and drainage infrastructure nationwide was not provided for audit inspection. 4) A list of all approved allocated lands within government quarters, allocation of government quarters, rental, and lease of government property was also not provided to the audit team.