By Nasratu Kargbo
The Director General at the Sierra Leone’s Foreign Ministry Dr. Victoria M. Suleimany has called on parliament to support her advocacy to make the institution financially autonomous.
“Our problem as a ministry is that we are not a self-accounting ministry. I have not seen it anywhere, where a foreign ministry is not in charge of their own finances. Please add your voice to my voice so we can be self-accountable,” she said.
The DG made this plea to the Public Account Committee in parliament while responding to queries made in the Auditor General’s Report regarding Sierra Leonean diplomats illegally utilizing revenues collected which were meant to be remitted into the consolidated fund on the 10th of July this year.
Explaining the importance for the ministry to be financially independent, the she said since the ministry relates with the international community and is also in the Security Council if the council’s president deems it fit to hold a meeting which requires a representative from Sierra Leone, and the ministry of finance does not release the funds, the meeting will proceed.
Responding to a plea from Dr Suleimny, the Chairman of the Public Account Committee in Parliament Ibrahim Tawa Conteh said that it is difficult to make the Ministry self-accounting.
The Chairman said that Ministries Departments and Agencies request for special imprest and when it is given to them they do not retire it, they would expend monies without supporting documents and break many other financial laws.
“Had the ministries upped their game in terms of management and efficiency of documentation, I would not be constrained to say that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not require autonomy because it is a big ministry. You are the number one diplomat of Sierra Leone and you are the face of the country, and if you do not have money to represent us then it’s a problem,” he said.
He said even though the auditors flew to the various countries to do their jobs the representatives in the missions could not provide the necessary documents.
“It is difficult to consider all these factors and grant autonomy.”
The Chairman therefore proposed that the mission retains a certain percentage of revenues collected in order to handle some affairs of the mission.
Conteh who is also the Deputy Speaker of Parliament explained that with a threshold given to them, diplomats can use it to cover liabilities and take care of other work related matters, and ensure the rest of the monies go into the consolidated fund.
The Chairman cited the Public Financial Management Act sections 27 and 28, he said the Act states that a revenue cannot be earmarked except with authority from parliament, saying that whatever they collect should be remitted as per law.
Deputy Leader of the Opposition 2 Aaron Aruna Koroma who is a member of the committee admitted that sometimes there are delays in government transfer, saying that is why the chairman proposed a percentage of retention and what it is expended.
Addressing the Foreign Affairs Director General, the MP emphasized that she has not provided responses to all the queries in the report and that he is sure that they used all the monies mentioned in the report. Koroma added that despite the fact that the monies were used illegally they could have provided supporting documents to show how the monies were utilized.
However, the Director General stated that their activities are unpredictable and that pegging a percentage will be difficult.
She said some of those that did not comply with the law did not do it intentionally, explaining that in some countries one has to pay health insurance and other bills and that if the finance ministry hasn’t remitted funds, one would use consular funds to avoid the mission being sued.
According to the Auditor General’s Report, many embassies such as the Sierra Leone embassy to Switzerland, German, Iran, Kuwait and Abu Dahbi had so many audit queries asides illegally expending monies.
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