A leaked letter written by the Chief Executive of NPPA (National Public Procurement Authority) and addressed to the Solicitor General shows that, since 2015, the Auditor General never followed any competitive bidding process in the award of audit contracts except on one occasion.
The NPPA letter reads, “We must point out that specifically in relation to the selection and hiring of audit firms to undertake audit services for and on behalf of ASSL, our records did not show any proof that the ASSL employed any accepted procurement processes such as approval by procurement committee to embark on the method of selecting sole consultant as stipulated in sub-section (2) of Section 46 of the Public Procurement Act, 2016 or notification for the holding of the procurement process as stipulated in sub-section (2) of Section 47 of the Public Procurement Act, 2016”.
Last week, the Auditor General agreed to comply with FMCA (Financial Management and Control Act) of 2017 after a protracted battle with the uncompromising Financial Secretary in the Ministry of Finance.
After the intervention of the Speaker of Parliament, the Auditor General agreed to establish the Treasury Single Account, at the Bank of Sierra Leone, into which audit fees will now be transferred, and made 100% automatically available for use by ASSL, as part of ASSL’s budgetary allocation for the year to which it relates.
Meanwhile, at a Government of Sierra Leone press conference held in Freetown on Thursday, 18th March 2021, the Financial Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Sahr Lahai Jusu disclosed that, between 2018 and 2021 Government has increased budgetary allocation to Audit Service Sierra Leone by 30%. “In 2021 we have allocated Le53.4 Billion to Audit Service Sierra Leone and half of that amount has already been disbursed to them”, the Financial Secretary informed newsmen.
