By Cornelius Oguntola Melvin Deveaux

The 2019 Audit Report is crucial in determining whether the SLPP government of Julius Maada Bio is serious about taking forward the national crusade against corruption and to seal leakages and wastage in the management of public finance. It is a report card on how best the SLPP government can manage the finances of the country. Regrettably, the findings are alarming and of serious consequences to both the efficient management of public finance and the fight against corruption which are bedrocks of good governance.

The 2019 audit report unveils an unimaginable spate of leakages and wastage in the management of public finances. Sections of the media have been awash with calculations of the total losses, describing such as overt and tantamount to day light robbery.

I recall during the 2018 elections campaign period, now Minister of Finance Jacob Jusu Saffa and his SLPP protégés were both assertive and aggressive in painting as corrupt the then APC government of Dr Ernest Bai Koroma, using reports of the Auditor General as the basis of their claims.

The SLPP vouched to maintain prudent fiscal and monetary discipline in the management of public finances by blocking leakages and wastage and fight corruption. They promised a turnaround in six months but the 2019 audit report is both shocking and laden with leakages and wastage amounting to missing billions. By indication, corruption is now the norm other than the unusual and this is evident not just in the employment of relatives and party cronies as consultants and the missing 47 laptops valued at Le 476 million but also in the complicity shrouding the procurement of 40 SUVs for the Covid-19 response and the use of state funds to finance activities of the wife of the president and to cover funeral expenses for party stalwarts.

The 2019 audit report is a great disappointment especially when it is considered the SLPP government campaigned on the ticket of change and has in its almost three years in office chased, with acrimony and venom, officials of the past APC administration on allegations of corruption.

The fact that the report portends that the management of public finance has only got worse under the watch of Jacob Jusu Saffa and his SLPP speak volumes of the depth corruption may have nose-dived and governments ineptitude. We should also throw the spotlight on the likes of Sahr Jusu and Mathew Dingie who have been at the helm of managing the public purse for almost a decade or more but have repeatedly, systematically and deliberately failed to better their conduct and implement recommendations contained in audit reports.

Certainly the 2019 audit report implies wastage of public finance is incredibly high and corruption is on the increase. This rubbishes the SLPP’s grandstanding dislike for corruption and the outlandish MCC pass while reinforcing a recent public perception survey which ranks parliament and the presidency among the most corrupt institutions in the country. It also rubbishes the much trumpeted SLPP GTT report and the Commissions of Inquiry.

Pursuant to section 119 (4)(5) of the 1991 constitution, the 2019 audit report has been tabled in Parliament and Parliament shall debate the report of the Auditor-General and appoint where necessary in the public interest a committee to deal with any matters arising therefrom.”

The Anti Corruption Commission similarly underscores an urgency in dealing with matters arising from the report. Against the background that the issue of corruption in the procurement of the 40SUVs for the Covid-19 response was raised by the media and both the ACC and Parliament failed to act appropriately I will not bother into who, between the two, has supremacy over the report even as I am in doubt over who has the moral gravitas to raise the red flag on corruption.

Named as one of the three most corrupt institutions in a public perception survey, Sierra Leones Parliament has the unenviable record of clamping down its own when they speak of the integrity and moral high standing of Parliament with regards issues of internal accountability and transparency. The likes and character of Hindolo Ngevao and the lingering allegations of impropriety from Hon. Ibrahim Tawa Conteh are a reason to conclude Sierra Leones current Parliament is complicit in the fight against corruption and may not be up to the task of ensuring probity in the management of public finance and fighting corruption.

The Anti Corruption Commission, on the other hand, is on record to have publicly disgraced teachers on allegations of corruption but was quick to come to the defense of the SLPPs Chief Minister in a matter alleging his involvement in a US$1.5 million scam. Right thinking Sierra Leoneans are doubtful as to whether the ACC boss will have the temerity and moral composition to chase those who have been named in the 2019 audit report with same determination exerted to investigate/confiscate properties of persons named in the COI report even before they appeal the findings of the report as per law.

Worrying, also, is that the 2019 audit report indicts local councils under the supervision of opposition parties in parliament of gross financial impropriety particularly in areas such as payment for overseas travel and DSAs to non-council staff, payment of sitting fees and transport allowance to absentee councilors, unaccounted fuel and failure to pay withholding tax to NRA. Many believe this will further compromise an already compromised opposition.

But recalling a meeting in 2018 wherein Chief Minister David Francis was reported to have instructed newly recruited internal auditors for MDAs to do the bidding of the SLPP, investigations will determine whether this is a true picture of what obtains or the work of internal auditors doing the bidding of the SLPPs Chief Minister David Francis to slur the reputation of these councils simply because they are supervised by opposition parties. This bidding is further evident in reference to certain opposition persons in a manner aimed at soiling their reputation.

Ironically, the findings of the real-time audit on the management of Covid-19 funds are the exact reasons why the Julius Maada Bio led SLPP government did not want the funds to have been audited. In a similar effort to promote the concept of not being accountable for public money a proposed amendment to the Public Finance Management act was to have accord the president an unaccountable imprest. Consequently, the 2019 audit findings could be said to be a true reflection of the aptitude of President Julius Maada Bio and his SLPP caboodle as an outrageously corrupt bunch of tribal bigots whose ineptitude in the business of governance and service delivery is brazenly typified in its inefficient handling of the public purse causing the state huge financial losses in missing billions and a field day for the perpetrators of corruption.

Beyond the missing billions and the fight against corruption, Sierra Leone is a nation obliterating the gains made after a decade long civil war in the areas of good governance, efficient and prudent management of public finance and the fight against corruption. And this 2019 audit report points at the undeniable truth that the SLPP government of Julius Maada Bio is not fit for purpose and should certainly be voted out in 2023.

It will require great energy for Sierra Leone to convalesce from an already imploding financial disaster after 2023.

In conclusion, is the main opposition All Peoples Congress, my party, in the right frame of mind and appropriate gear as a government in waiting? Its time we put our hearts together to save our nation and democracy or posterity will judge us as equally guilty of this opprobrium.

Merry Christmas to all my friends and foes out there and I wish you all the best that you may wish for yourselves in the New Year. But I pray your best is not what the 2019 audit report speaks to: Super Ayampies.