By Crispina Taylor
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in parliament has resumed its probing session with Ministries Departments and Agencies on the findings of the 2014 auditor general’s report.
The probing session had earlier been hampered by the emergence of the special Audit Report on the management and the Ebola funds. The House finished probing institutions and individuals mentioned in the special report last month and so resumed probing into last year’s financial report on Monday.
The Roads Authority and Road Maintenance Fund Administrations (RMFA) were before the committee which raised salient questions about their performance audit reports on the rehabilitation and maintenance of rural feeder roads.
Addressing Abdul Aziz Kamara, the acting director general of the Sierra Leone Roads Authority (SLRA), the Chairman of the PAC, Chernor Bah, observed that the same names of individuals and companies kept coming up everywhere for award of contracts, be it in the provinces or anywhere else. He said the contractors should increase their manpower and equipment so as to speed up road constructions across the country.
In the report, issues pertaining to ongoing projects like safety measures and axle load control for feeder roads not being implemented were raised. Questions as to why traffic signs had not been erected were asked, as well as, why hazardous sections of the roads were not protected using traffic signs.
The report noted that the SLRA had not enacted appropriate traffic laws to specify the maximum axle and overall loads for feeder roads in the country.
It was also observed that the SLRA did not provide any evidence of a national feeder road inventory and road condition survey for planning and development of the feeder road network in the country. The report also noted that existing structures like culverts and bridges in poor conditions were not considered by SLRA during the rehabilitation of feeder roads.
The parliamentary questioning into the activities of public institutions continues, aimed at uncovering any financial improprieties in government funding. At the end of questioning, Parliament is expected to send its report on public funds mismanagement to the Attorney General and the Anti-Corruption Commission for public prosecutions of institutions found wanton.
Early this year, PAC questioned activities of the Small Holder Commercialization project of the agriculture ministry, after it appeared that the country had realised no gain from a 15-million dollar loan agreement between the ministry and the Indian government. At the end of the February hearing, PAC requested the ministry to produce documents substantiating utilisation of the money.
Officials from the ministry were also before PAC on Monday to defend their institution’s role in the commercialization project.
The Audit Report is an annual financial statement about financial activities of institutions funded by government. According to the auditors, an all-inclusive standard for the construction of concrete structures like pipe culverts, single and twin box culverts and bridges had not been developed by the SLRA for the implementation of all feeder road projects in the country.
As much as they were aware of the policies and regulations when it came to rehabilitation and maintenance of feeder roads, the auditors also noted that there were issues of non-compliance and there was no value for money in the implementation of feeder road works.
The audited financial report of the RMFA recorded 20% of the operating income which amounted to Le9 billion for 2010/2012. This amount, which was meant for the maintenance of those roads, was not provided by the RMFA and so no maintenance was done by district councils.
Collaboration and coordination amongst stake holders on feeder road works were also questioned as the auditors observed that local community residents had not been actively involved in the monitoring of feeder road works in their localities. They said the feeder road works had been undertaken by donors and development partners without the involvement of the district councils and SLRA district engineers.
© Politico 14/04/15
