By Mabinty M. Kamara
The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has in a press statement cleared the office of the First Lady of any corruption charges after an investigation was launched into the office in February this year in relation to corruption allegations by the Africanist Press.
The allegations of the Africanists Press was related to the payments and expenditures of public funds by the said office following allegations of illegal access to Public Funds by holders of the said Conventional Office in Sierra Leone in recent years, including the Current First Lady Fatima Bio.
It was on this basis that the commission on the 9th of February 2021 announced its commencement of a comprehensive probe into the Office of the First Lady, past and present, dealing with state funds and the legal and regulatory framework, if any, for them.
The statement by the ACC back then referencing its preliminary investigation into the issue noted that the Office of the First Lady had been receiving Billions of Leones of State funds yearly, spanning 14 years to date, and that most of the payments were either directly made to the holders of that office or channeled, through the Presidency, as normal presidential official expenditure signed-off on by respective Secretaries to the President
The latest report by the anti-graft agency noted that the Office of the First Lady is not established by any specific law, but has been recognized and accepted as a Conventional Office within the governance architecture of Sierra Leone and had accordingly been accorded avenues to access Public funds, including travel per diems, projects and official responsibilities like State Dinners and entertainment for over 20 years.
This the report stated is established by the fact that the Accountant-General’s Department confirmed resource allocations to the said office and its accounts and expenditure were duly audited in 2019 by the Audit Service Sierra Leone as part of the audit process for Ministries, Departments and Agencies of State.
It also noted that the office both under the reign of the former First Lady, Sia Nyama Koroma, and Fatima Bio engaged in charity projects and that public funds were used to support those ventures.
“With respect to specific payments made to First Lady Mrs. Fatima Bio, the Commission confirms that it was done in compliance with Section 39 of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016; that gives the State, authority to expend State funds to unallocated head of expenditure to a certain threshold, to “necessary” public cause(s) in the interest of the Public and that the said allocations were confirmed to be the exercise of the discretion provided by law to the Minister of Finance,” the statement reads.
However, in relation to other issues of expenditure, including prudential financial management, procurement issues, the interface between charitable donations to the said office with public funds, etc., these the statement noted will be dealt with within the framework of the Auditor-General’s Report of 2019 and that they will be giving due deference to those recommendations and act on them accordingly.
“Based on the above and upon analyzing the records of accounts, official approval documents and the legal and regulatory framework concerning payments made to the Office of the First Lady since 2007 to date, we hereby confirm that there is not, at this stage, any criminal responsibility in the process of payments to, and expenditures relating to, the Office of the First Lady; and the probe has been accordingly closed by the ACC,” the statement affirms.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (21/06/21)
