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Abu Bakarr Amara, the second witness in the tribunal hearing of the former Auditor General Lara Taylor Pearce and her Deputy Tamba Momoh was yesterday led in evidence by the Principal State Counsel Ahmed Joseph Maxwell Bockarie.
Testifying on oath at the National Social Security and Insurance Trust (NASSIT) court, main Law Court Building in Freetown, Mr. Abu Bakarr Amara, Principal Auditor and divisional head at the Public Enterprise Division of the Audit Service Sierra Leone said he joined the ASSL in 2012.
Within that period at the Special Audit Department he helped in the selection of teams to go out on various Audit assignments.
The witness was directed to exhibit documents including his summary statement, and final management letter on the audit of the Office of the President for the Financial Years 2011, 2012, 2016 and 2017 which he said he was involved in the audit of the President Office for the above financial years.
With regards to the process involved in auditing, the tribunal witness said the entire audit process starts at pre-planning and planning, to the execution (field work) and after which goes to reporting and finally do a follow up with an engagement letter to clients for pre-planning.
After signing it by the client, they will be engaged in a meeting discussing what is expected from the client, and from there set a date for the team to conduct audit.
According to Mr. Abu Bakarr Amara, he is familiar with the issue of a third party confirmation, and its process have International Standard of Auditing (ISA 505) pronounced on the 15th December,2009 by the International Audit Board and which talks about external confirmation.`
External confirmation of a third party, Amara said is a process where in your request or obtained confirm information regarding bank account balances and related element.
It can also be used to confirm terms of agreement contract and transaction of an entity and related parties. The Commission have a the Audit Service manual, and with a template which is printed out, filled with all information based on specific audit and signed by senior personnel and sent to the client for it to be signed and returned back to the Audit Service.
He went on that, “It is wrong to contract a third party without consent, and also not a normal process for supervisor to contract the third party, and any document received during audit will be entered into a log book.”
Lawyer Roland Wright on behalf of Mrs. Lara Taylor Pearce cross examined the witness Abu Bakarr Amara.
Justice Nyawo Matturi Jones is the Chairperson of the tribunal set up by President Julius Maada Bio.
