PARLIAMENT BUILDING
OAU DRIVE, TOWER HILL
FREETOWN
Tel: 232-88-802-020
E-mail: majubah.parl@gmail.com
30th October, 2020
Anthony Y. Brewah Esq.
Attorney General and Minister of Justice
Guma Building,
Lamina Sankoh Street,
Freetown
Dear Hon. Minister,
Real Time Audit Of Funds Managed By The National COVID – 19 Emergency Response Center
I have followed the developments around the ‘Real Time’ Audit of the COVID -19 Funds with great interest. In particular, I have noted with disbelief, Government’s position issued by your office and under your hand, that ‘it is nearly impossible for Government to respond to the Auditor General’s request ‘to review facts, figures, findings and recommendations’ emanating from an audit of the public funds entrusted to the National COVID -19 Emergency Response Center (NaCOVERC). While I consider such response very strange, I am also particularly astounded by your argument that such near impossibility is necessitated by the existing State of Emergency and the ‘Extraordinary Powers’ it confers on the President (who is the Chairman of NaCOVERC), to do whatever he deems ‘expedient to prevent and/or control the pandemic’.
Sir, may I in the first place, draw your attention to the fact that there are ABSOLUTELY NO REGULATIONS before Parliament, relating to the State of Emergency including the one you have quoted and relied upon, that precludes NaCOVERC or any individual or institution from giving account of their management of the public funds entrusted to them to fight off the COVID -19 pandemic.
Let me further remind you that this is not the first time Sierra Leone has experienced such a State of Emergency; or such an institution as NaCOVERC having the President as its Chairman. This is also not the first time our National Audit Service is conducting a real time audit into the management of emergency funds. In 2014, when the Ebola disease broke out, the National Ebola Response Center (NERC) was established under a state of emergency which gave the then President ‘extraordinary powers’ to do whatever he deemed expedient to prevent and control that disease outbreak. And though NERC was chaired by the then President, it was not used as a cover by the Government of former President Ernest Bai Koroma to sidestep its constitutional responsibility of accounting to the people of Sierra Leone and to our international partners for funds entrusted to it under the emergency.
Worthy of note is the fact that, in respect of both the Sierra Leone Constitution and the public’s right to know, President Ernest Bai Koroma expediently used the ‘extraordinary powers’ conferred on him by the State of Emergency to order, at the height of the Ebola Pandemic, a real time audit of the management of the Ebola funds. Even with such voluntary expedient use of extraordinary powers, the 2012 Presidential Candidate of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP), who is now His Excellency President Dr. Julius Maada Bio, still found it necessary to write an open letter dated 22nd, February, 2015, to then President Koroma urging that: ‘… A further audit be carried out on the management of the Ebola Funds From November 2014 until Sierra Leone is declared by WHO as free of the Ebola Virus…’.
One would therefore expect that even from a moral standpoint, this SLPP Government would have been enthusiastic about initiating, rather than forestalling an audit into the management of the COVID – 19 Funds.
However, if the SLPP led -Government does not feel so morally obliged, as a former head of the Public Accounts Committee in Parliament and former deputy Speaker who presided over the enactment of The Public Finance Management (PFM) Act, 2016, I would like to emphasize to you sir, that the PFM Act, 2016 is very clear about the accountability of ALL public funds, even where and when such (public) funds are managed in an emergency.
I will also refer you to Section 119 of the Public Procurement Regulations 2020 under the rubric “SOLE SOURCE PROCUREMENT FOR EMMERGENCY NEEDS”, which makes ample provision and procedure for procurement during emergency.
Sir, in view of the aforementioned therefore, let me reiterate to you that even in an emergency, as long as the Government continues to receive and expend funds on behalf of the public, its constitutional responsibility to give account to the public remains sacrosanct and cannot be waved.
I therefore hereby, as a first step in my capacity as the leader of the opposition in Parliament, urge you to support the due process by advising NaCOVERC to respond to the queries of the Audit.
While, as espoused in the PFM Act, 2016, I look forward to your office for the protection of public interest in pursuit of transparency and accountability, please accept the assurances of my highest consideration on matters of national interest.
Sincerely,
Hon. Chernor R. M. Bah
Leader of the Opposition in Parliament
Cc: The Hon. Vice President
The Speaker of Parliament
The Chief Minister
The Minister of Finance
The Leader of Government Business – HOP
The Parliamentary Leader- C4C
The Parliamentary Leader- NGC
The Secretary to President
The National Coordinator (NaCOVERC)
The Deputy National Coordinator/Funds Administrator
The Auditor-General
The Chief Executive – NPPA
