By Allieu Sahid Tunkara
Sierra Leone’s Accountant-General has promised transparency and accountability in the management of government funds.
In its first ever press conference since the establishment of the department, Accountant-General Kebbe Kouroma said the best way to do that was to strengthen the relationship between the media and the department.
“This is the time for my department to work closer with journalists than ever before,” he said at the conference held at the conference hall of the Ministry of Finance in Freetown.
The get-together with journalists provided opportunity for officials of the self-confessed secretive institution to explain its mandate, which is guided by four pillars, paramount amongst which were the compilation of timely and comprehensive accounts and the adoption of stringent financial controls.
Mr Koroma said those pillars explained why the minister of Finance submits, on an annual basis, audited financial report of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to parliament. He said they normally prepared this report in the last three months of every financial year.
Koroma assured that the Accountant-General’s department was now opened to public scrutiny.
In their strive to ensure transparency, went on, the department had fully complied with all relevant laws, including the Government Budgeting and Accountability Act of 2005 and the Financial Management Regulations of 2001, amongst others.
He said the public accounts report, a summary of financial operations of all MDAs, had just been laid before parliament but cautioned that the document was not yet opened to the public.
However, the Accountant General said their only challenge remained human resources which was affecting their operations.
Deputy Accountant-General, Richard Williams, said they`d prepared a payment checklist to ensure that all monies expended by government were properly accounted for.
“The checklist is a support document for all payments made by the government to the public. It eliminates delays and frauds and this is where accountability starts,” Mr. Williams explained.
He said the payment checklist would also guide all accounts posted to various MDAs, and urged all public institutions to comply with the document, which he described as “a basic internal control system.” He said the document would also ease the work of auditors as they strived to achieve transparency and accountability.
Earlier this year, Budget Advocacy Network (BAN), a body comprising of various Non-Governmental Organizations in Sierra Leone, issued a financial report indicting government of over-spending. The BAN report also highlighted huge spending on on administrative matters, which overall, it notes, have led to 5% wastage in much needed resources.
At the Accountant General`s press conference on Thursday, however, senior officials at the ministry explained that the said 5% wastage was monies spent on public institutions which could not generate funds for themselves.
© Politico 21/04/15
