By Hassan Osman Kargbo
In accordance with Section 119 (4) of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone, the Audit Service Sierra Leone has submitted its report on the Accounts of Ministries Departments and Agencies in Sierra Leone for the Financial Year ended 31st December, 2022 and the report unrevealed the dubious activities of the Parliamentary Services Commission of Sierra Leone.
It could be recalled that one of the reasons the Parliamentary Services was established was to provide Parliament with technical and administrative support and advisory services to enable Parliament to effectively and efficiently execute its constitutional and other functions.
Moreover, the Commission shall consist of: The Speaker, who shall be the Chairman; The Deputy Speaker; The Leader of the Majority Party in Parliament; The Leader of the Minority Party in Parliament; A representative of members of Parliament who have been elected as independent candidates, and there are more members that made up of the commission.
However, the Audit report has clearly brought to light the negatives happenings of the Parliamentary Commission. According to the report, Section 3.3.1 of the Parliamentary Service Commission HR Policy requires that vacancies from Grade
7 and above would be advertised internally and externally to attract the best possible candidates for the position and encouraged open competition. However, that should only take place after thorough needs assessment had been done for the position, and the authority to recruit was sought. Vacancies for
positions below the above-mentioned levels may be advertised first internally, and if no suitable candidate is found, external candidates will be invited to apply.
The report furthered noted that, that particular requirement were not met in 2022 as salaries totalling SLE1,913,138.79 had been paid to 42 staffs recruited by the Commission without evidence of the recruitment procedures followed, such as needs assessments, advertisement for the vacant positions, application letters, evidence of interviews conducted, attendance register of panellist and applicants, and selection report.
And the report recommended that the Acting Director of Human Resources should submit the relevant documentary evidence in support of the findings.
The official response from the Commission was they noted the audit comments on the findings regarding the non-compliance with recruitment processes. However, they wished to advise that in a meeting held by the PSC in February 2022, the following resolutions were taken:
“1) the seven volunteer staff be employed on permanent basis with the Parliamentary Service Commission
2) The Clerk of Parliament use head-hunting to replace staff within the grades of 2-6 that have resigned/retired/terminated from the Service.
The Minutes Paper evidencing the approval of the PSC is available for inspection,” it stated.
And the Auditor’s Comment was that, In relation to the recruitment of eight staff of grades 7 and above, the Director of Human Resources submitted a document captioned “Minutes Paper” which stated that the Commission should regularise the status of the volunteers. However, section 3.3.1 of the Parliamentary Service Commission HR
Policy requires needs assessment and advertisement for the recruitment of staff of grades 7 and above. Evidence of these documents was not submitted during verification. The issue remains unresolved.
The report also Generally observed that, even though the Parliamentary Service Commission had budget provisions for printing and stationery, they observed that there were no payment to the Public Accounts Committee for the printing of its Annual Report on hearings held on the Auditor-General’s Report in 2022. This has prevented the citizens from knowing whether actions are taken on audit recommendations made to clients.
