Consular funds amounting to US$2.7 million collected by the Sierra Leone Embassy, Washington, DC between June 2018 -December 2021 were not transferred into the Consolidated Fund, the Acting Auditor General said.

According to the Report on the Account of Sierra Leone 2021, the Embassy collected US$3,024,087.28 but they only remitted to the Consolidated Fund US$310,000.00 leaving out.
2021, Auditors observed that several payments totalling Le1 33 billion were made to suppliers/ creditors who were not in the debt clearance strategy.

A debt clearance strategy is a plan that serves as a guide in settling domestic arrears. This plan had been formulated to implement the terms in the strategy, but the implementation had been very slow. Mostly, this plan the Auditors: said was not consulted when domestic arrears were settled. In addition, there were cases where debts not in the debt clearance strategy were serviced. As they also noted a variance of Le527,5 million between the amount paid to suppliers and the amount stated in the strategy.

With regards to the payment agreement signed on 21st May 2019 between ISU Engineering and the Government of Sierra Leone (GoSL), it was noted that a total amount of Le38.76 billion was paid to the contractor in 2021, even though the Auditors in their recommendation in the Audit Service Sierra Leone (ASSI) verification report in 2018 stated that IPCs 26 and 27 should not be honoured.

Also, as part of the ASSL audit, they verified expenditure incurred on domestic arrears to assess whether it was incurred for the intended purpose and by the Public Financial Management (PFM) Act of 2016. The Auditors were however unable to conclude on the sum of Le18.73 billion due to lack of documentation. The transactions in respect of this expenditure did not have payment vouchers and other supporting documents.

During their review, they stated that there has been an immense improvement in managing and reporting public debts for domestic arrears and external loans. However, the level of both external and domestic loans remains very high. As stated earlier, the Government in 2018 prepared a debt clearance strategy, which is a plan that should serve as a guide in settling domestic arrears that have piled up over the preceding years. The debt clearance strategy was vital for managing the old debts s and the government’s commitment to settling outstanding arrears.

Although this strategy has been formulated, the implementation of the terms in the strategy the Auditors said has been very slow.
For the most part, it has not been consulted when domestic arrears are settled.

They noted during the audit that through the advice of the IMF priorities have been given to arrears that are accruing interest and attracting fines. Notwithstanding Government must continue to ensure that the debt clearance strategy is implemented practicably as possible.

The Auditor General stated that their audit procedure requires to ascertain the accuracy of External Public Debt relating to multilateral and bilateral creditors recorded in the General-Purpose Financial Statements.

This was done through third-party confirmation, of the total External Debt of Le20.99 trillion reported in the General-Purpose Financial Statements, Le19.09 trillion, which accounts for 91% was confirmed; external creditors did not confirm Le1.9 trillion, which 9% of the total debt. However, the unconfirmed balances the ASSL said are accumulated debts dating far back between 1983 and 2017. We were able to verify and confirm all the DODS contract agreements relating to these unconfirmed balances during the course of the audit.