By Joseph Lamin Kamara
The Sierra Leone (SLAJ) has denied inability to account for money it secured for sensitization about the Ebola outbreak.
A social media reports alleged that the umbrella journalist association had failed to account for a sum of Le300 m given to it to raise awareness about the deadly Ebola virus across the country.
The story “is far from being the case and that the allegations contained in the said article are totally untrue and are a result of the author misunderstanding the issues discussed in the Association’s Annual General Meeting [AGM] held in Kenema over the weekend,” a SLAJ press statement released Tuesday and signed by its Secretary General Moses Kargbo reads in part.
SLAJ over the weekend convened its AGM in Kenema, and there was controversy about financial accounts its Executive presented.
In the Tuesday press release SLAJ conceded the accounts were unaudited and it was wrong to have presented them at the meeting.
“The internal auditors were not presented with the statement of accounts,” it added.
“However, the Financial Secretary did explain that due to the volume of funds that passed through SLAJ’s accounts in the past year, it was difficult to prepare the accounts in time for them to be audited prior to the AGM.”
SLAJ says it agreed at the meeting that the unaudited accounts be presented at the meeting “so members have an idea of the income and expenditure.”
It also says it had agreed that the accounts would later be submitted for “external auditing.”
“When the audited accounts of the Association are ready and approved by the membership, they will be published for all to see,” the release assured.
The social media story also questions SLAJ’s relationship with the multimedia group Premier Media on radio jingles for Ebola sensitization, but the journalist group said in its statement that transparency was maintained in its partnership with Premier Media.
The press release quoted SLAJ’s president, Kelvin Lewis, to have said that “It is unfortunate that a young member of SLAJ has inadvertently published a story which now has the potential to bring the Association into contempt and ridicule in the eyes of the public.”
Politico 10/06/15
