The All People’s Congress has in a letter dated November 3, 2020, said that it is disturbed by the Government of Sierra Leone’s outright refusal to allow the audit of COVID-19 funds expended by it.
The letter had been issued by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice and addressed to the Auditor General.
“We view the reason advanced for such refusal, viz the existence of a State of Public Emergency that conferred on the President extraordinary powers as Chairman of the National COVID-19 Emergency Response Centre (NaCOVERC) to do whatever he deems expedient to prevent or control the pandemic as an uncanny pretext to veil corruption,” the statement further reads.
According to the leadership of the All Peoples Congress, “no law insulates the President or government officials from financial audits of their activities as public officials even if such activities were carried out in calamitous circumstances. The purport of a State of Emergency and the special powers conferred on the President is to enable the seamless performance of specific processes without the usual bureaucracies that occasion them.”
They insist that it is not a blank cheque for non-accountability. They described the Government’s position i.e. the resistance to financial audit, as “an anathema to the good governance credentials that have made us the envy of many nations in the world.”
They insist that Sierra Leone has over the years, since the end of the war acquired the reputation of operating sound state institutions that have great democratic compass.
They informed the current administration about the former APC Led Government under the leadership of Dr, Ernest Bai Koroma, which under the scourge of a ravaging Ebola pandemic a State of Emergency was invoked that gave President Koroma the same powers conferred on the current President.
“As Chairman of the National Ebola Response Centre (NERC), the former Head of State, imbued with high sense of duty to his countrymen allowed a real-time audit of funds used to fight the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). Audit Service Sierra Leone enjoyed absolute independence and had complete freedom to look into every aspect of Ebola financing. Their findings were held sacrosanct by government and in record time parliament acted on the contents of the report. President Koroma further expressed his support for the probe and reminded all of his earlier warning to public officials,” the statement continued.
The APC leadership described the aforementioned actions of the former President as financial propriety and criticized President Maada Bio who “felt the urge to write an open letter to him requesting further audit on the management of Ebola funds”.
“Ironically SLPP supporters took the umbrage to stage protests at home and abroad in a bid to begrudge President Koroma’s efforts in ensuring transparency and accountability in public service. It therefore eludes reasoning that President Julius Maada Bio and his SLPP government should now have the audacity to publicly dismiss an audit into funds used and entrusted to them for the good of all Sierra Leoneans.”
The APC leadership recognized in their statement the abundance of legislations that provide for accountability of public servants, adding that there is none which precludes any official or MDA, including one Chaired by the President from accounting for funds entrusted to them.
“The Public Financial Mangement ACT, 2016; Public Procurement Act, 2016; Fiscal Management and Control Act, 2017 et al which provide for special circumstances for procurement or fiscal administration do not expressly or implicitly denounce auditing of public funds. Furthermore, there is no regulation before the parliament endorsing the Attorney General’s flagrant refusal of audit of COVID-19 funds,” they emphasized.
The APC drew a parallel between Attorney General’s letter, and the “Government’s blatant attempt to table before parliament an instrument providing for non-accountable imprest of President Bio’s numerous travels”.
By Hasbin Shaw
5/11/2020. ISSUE NO: 7944