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During 2019, the Freetown City Council made payments over Le 200 million (Le200,942,333) for air tickets and per diems to individuals that are not staff of the Council, according to findings from the Auditor Generals (AG) report.
In her 2019 Annual report, the AG stated that Council failed to submit back to office reports and evidence of transfer of knowledge to Council staff regarding the travels undertaken for audit inspection.
“Above all, since this transaction was not budgeted for by the Council and without the appropriate approval, we deemed it as ineligible expense” said Auditor General Lara Taylor-Pearce.
Further findings under “Expenditure Management and Control”, showed that the Council also failed to submit payment vouchers and relevant supporting documents to justify payments made.
While reviewing bank statements and expense ledgers, the audit team from Audit Service Sierra Leone, observed that payments amounting to over Le 620 million (Le620,665,772) for various expenses were without payment vouchers.
In addition, supporting documents for these payments were also not submitted for audit inspection. “The situation could undermine effective controls and lead to payment for goods and services not delivered and misappropriation of public funds”, the Auditor General observed.
It was also detected that payments totaling Le2.3 billion (Le2,973,591,070) were without adequate supporting documents such as delivery notes, invoices, receipts, back-to-office report and beneficiaries lists to properly account for the payments.
“The situation could undermine effective controls and lead to payment for goods and services not delivered and misappropriation of Public Funds.”
