By Nasratu Kargbo
The National COVID-19 Emergency Response Centre (NaCOVERC) has on the 7th June 2021 issued a press release in reaction to an article published by the Africanist Press titled “Hidden COVID Funds”.
According to NaCOVERC what is been stated on the article published by the Africanist Press on the 7th June 2021 is “a wrong characterization” of the institution; the release went further to say that NACOVERC is “guided by the hallmark of legitimacy, transparency and accountability”.
The Africanist Press article stated that the Ministry of Finance and those in charge of the of the country’s COVID-19 response programme “have been holding billions of Leones in public revenues received from COVID response services in a private bank account”.
The article claimed that this is a direct violation of the country’s finance laws and regulations and made reference to the Public Management Act of 2016, the law that governs the use of public funds; which according to the article says “mandates Sierra Leone’s Finance Minister to establish a Treasury Single Account (TSA) at the Bank of Sierra Leone (BSL) for the management of all public funds”.
However, the article says the financial records that the Africanist Press accessed showed that “Over Le18.1 billion (nearly US$2 million) raised domestically through services related to COVID-19 operations, such as testing, have been kept in a private bank account for almost a year instead of being transferred into the Treasury Single Account (TSA), the government’s central account held at the Bank of Sierra Leone (BSL).”
NaCOVERC in its rejoinder explained that the institution was created by laws pursuant to the declaration of state emergency by President Julius Maada Bio in March, explained that the regulation established a financial management system for COVID-19 funds. According to NaCOVERC the institution is “guided by regulations which created it as an extra-budgetary agency” and went on to say that NaCOVERC has complete authority to open accounts in commercial banks to aid its operation, but “without sacrificing the values of prudent financial management”.
The article explained that according to the Press’s findings, it discovered that the Ministry of Finance and NaCOVERC created a special COVID-19 Lab Account at the Union Trust Bank (UTB) on 21st July2020, to which the signatories are Sheku A.F.Bangura the then deputy Finance Minister and Sylvester Johnny the Head of Adminstration and Finance at NaCOVERC. NaCOVERC explained in their statement that the men were just performing their duties stating that “the two men are signatories to the said account which is being operated in line with the regulation that established NaCOVERC”.
The release also made mention of section 47 (4) of the Public Financial Management Act (PFMA) of 2016, which was quoted in the article by the Africanist Press, that states: “Any bank accounts of budgetary agencies, sub-vented agencies, or other entities in the central government, whether in Sierra Leone or elsewhere, shall not be opened or closed except under the authority of the Minister signified by the Accountant-General, and no bank may open any such account without such authority.”
According to both the press release and the article, Jacob Jusu Saffa was the Minister of Finance under whose directives the account was opened. NaCOVERC therefore said that in no way made the action of the minister illegal “NaCOVERC does not understand how an account opened with the fiat of the Minister of Finance in line with said Act can be regarded as illegal”
The authors of the article stated that most of the payments were made electronically via mobile phone operators such as Africell and Orange. They stated that the total payment done electronically summed up to “Le11, 418,078,000.00(over US$1million)”; according to them this figure represents 63% of all payments into the COVID-19 Lab Account since July 2020. They expressed doubt “whether the use of telephone companies to collect huge sums of state revenues are in compliance with the public finance laws and regulations. It is also unknown what percentages of testing fees were paid to Africell and Orange”.
In the press release, NaCOVERC stated: “this is to prevent cash transactions with individuals, thus ensuring all funds are collected and accounted for”. The release explained that since individuals cannot pay directly, payments are made into the bank account through the funds collected via mobile, credit/debit cards or cash payment directly into the bank accounts.
The release stated that NaCOVERC has kept the presidential task force informed of all funds collected and has decided that these funds will be used to fund projects that will be a long lasting legacy. It added that “it is expected that President Bio will soon inform the public what these funds will be used for”.
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