The Audit Service Sierra Leone report dated 29 July 2022 has exposed alleged mismanagement of funds at Paul School for the Blind leading to the withdrawal of a major donor, VERITAS from continuing with its support to the school.

The Audit report was forwarded therein to the Head Teacher of Paul School for the Blind, Mohamed S. Conteh with his signature affirming acknowledgement of the report brought out the findings. Here is an excerpt of the findings.

The report reveals that “From the document we received, it was observed that payment valued at Le 62,370,000 in 2018, Le 102,482,000 in 2019, Le 68,712,000 in 2020 and Le 49,270,000 in 2021 were made from the Paul School for the Blind account had at the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank without adequate documents such as requisition, payment vouchers, invoices, receipts, delivery etc. This might also lead to misappropriation of public funds meant for the running of the school.”

The report indicated that “we observed that total payments value at Le 81,820,000 were made to fuel dealers in Bo City for the supply of diesel to the Paul School for the period under review but records such as fuel ledger, fuel chits, vehicle log book, fuel reconciliation ledger were not submitted for audit to indicate the utilization of the total amount of fuel bought for the period under review.

There is a likelihood that the fuel supplied to the school may have been misused leading to the loss of public funds.”

The report further disclosed that ” from the document we reviewed including receipts and invoices, we observe that withholding taxes valued at Le 3,430,000 in 2018, Le 5,851,510 in 2019, Le 3,779,160 in 2022 and Le 2,709,850 in 2021 were not deducted and paid to the National Revenue Authority from the payment made to suppliers and contractors for goods, works and services. The non-payment of withholding taxes may lead to the loss of government much-needed resources.”

The audit report also noted that ” we reviewed the bank statement of the school account held at the Sierra Leone Commercial bank and observed that the sum of Le 107,400,000 was withdrawn on the 5th November 2021 by the Management of the school and we made enquiries from the head teacher and it was revealed that the money was given to Sustain for Life, a Non-Governmental Organization to establish a computer Laboratory for the disabled children in the school compound. We further reviewed documents submitted such as receipts and attendance lists to account for computers, solar panels, Solar batteries, sign wave inverters, headphones, fans and training of teachers.

We however observed that procurements were followed for the implementation of the capacity-building projects for the Blind and low-vision pupils in computer skills at Paul School for the Blind in Bo. In addition, lists of procurement and evaluation committees, minutes of bid opening and evaluation committee meetings, award of contracts agreement, delivery notes and status reports on the implementation of the project were not submitted for audit.

There is a risk that the project may not have seen implemented based on proper transparency and underperformance may be the order of day leading to loss of public funds.”

Reacting to the allegation on Classic Radio in Bo, the Head Teacher of Bo School for the Blind, Mr Conteh said “I have been managing the funds for the running of the school and there are visible signs in the improvement of schools in terms of the dormitory, feeding of the pupils and taking care of the staff.

He claims that few people including the Try Family who owns the school want to take him off from the school but that cannot happen except the Ministry of Education does it, adding that “it is only the education ministry who can transfer me or remove me from that sit.”

Mr Conteh said that “the pupils are satisfied with the way I am taking care of the school.”

The current family Head of the True Family who established the School, Patrick Try said” when I took over I engaged the relevant authorities for the right thing to be done in the school as the Try family wants to help the present and future generations who might be physically challenged to be catered for.

“I am been humiliated for standing for the right thing to ensure that there is prudent financial management of the resources as the donors had a clear purpose to help the school but because financial management by the Head Teacher of the school led to the donor, Veritas to write indicating of withholding their support”, he said.

According to him, the Deputy Director of Education was engaged to step into ensuring that donors do not blackout but still waiting to see his action.

“Because of what is going on made the Audit Service Sierra Leone intervene to do an audit and we have also reported the matter to the Anti-Corruption Commission to step in,” he said.

Some educational stakeholders including Civil Society activists told this medium that the Ministry of education should speedily intervene as there is no effective learning at Paul School for the Blind.