By Mustapha Sesay
The deputy auditor general, Tamba Momoh, Monday told the Public Account Committee (PAC) in parliament that international creditors failed to corporate with Audit Service Sierra Leone during its 2013 audit nationwide exercise.
Momoh made the statement as part of the ongoing hearing of 2013 audit report. He said they had wanted to know the debt balances those creditors were holding and if it tallied with financial statements they received from the Ministry of Finance, and to know what had been given out to the government and when those loans were granted. He said contract files where those debts were recorded were not made available to the audit team even when they requested for them through public debt management at the Finance Ministry.
The director of Public Debt Management, Sir Jusu, confirmed that the audit team had indeed requested through them for the contract files. But, he said, they too contacted the creditors with letters written on different occasions in 2014, asking that the creditors, who include the Kuwait Development Fund, the Islamic Development Bank, and the Chinese government, supplied audit service with the relevant information relating to the credits they had given to the country.
Jusu explained that World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) already had such information on their web sites and could be accessed once the code was available.
The chairman of PAC, Chenor Bah, told the director to do more in order to ensure that the information were made available to the audit service as there was lack of confirmation from the creditors.
Hassan Sheriff, member of the committee, noted that there was indication of late communication between the public debt management and the creditors and advised that those communication gaps be managed to ensure corporation between the two institutions.
(C) Politico 30/06/15
