By Mustapha Sesay
Anti-Corruption Commissioner has told a systems review report launch in Freetown that if there is such a due process with the Ebola funds there wouldn’t have been a report of an alarming financial mismanagement.
Lawyer Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara reaffirmed that internal control systems were issues that had surfaced in all accountability reports and had proven to be a major challenge.
Prominent among issues usually captured in such a report, and specifically this time for key institutions in the water sector, were financial management, procurement procedures and internal control, mostly at the centre of all breaches related to corruption.
Similar processes had been carried out around the activities of the ministry of health and sanitation and the Sierra Leone Roads Transport Authority, the first two to have been subjected to such rigorous probity measures.
The Commissioner said he considered the process of reviewing the Ministry of Water Resources, Guma Valley Water Company and the Sierra Leone Water Company as part of their mandate under section 7(2)(f) and (h) of the ACC Act 2008. That provision in the law, he noted, also empowered them to examine practices and procedures of public institutions.
He said the overall reason for ACC to have undertaken such activities was to create transparent and accountable government institutions, adding that “there are good laws but the challenge remains to be with implementation of these laws and leadership commitment”.
The ACC boss assured that they would endeavor to provide solutions to such common problems by way of supporting implementation processes across government institutions and by collaborating with the Audit Service Commission in addressing some of those issues that could be managed.
He urged the water sector representatives to view the report from a positive point. Kamara emphasized that the issues in the report were not only limited to the water sector but they cut across all other government institutions and that as a Commission they had to do their job and had an obligation to report to the general public.
ACC’s deputy commissioner, Shollay Davis, said the system review process was to prevent corruption and enhance accountability in the water sector, especially so when they continue to face challenges in delivering on their mandate.
Mr. Davis noted that a survey conducted in 2005 by World Health Organization (WHO) and other international NGOs revealed that there were wide spread corruption in that sector. The said survey further highlighted that the prevalence of corruption had hampered delivery of services in the water sector generally.
(C) Politico 18/06/15
