Samuel Kallon 
By- Aruna Rashed Toma Bangura
The Anti-Corruption Commissioner Francis Ben Keifala has said that any interested person who fails to pay or recover money missing from the 2021 Auditor General’s report will be held in detention.
Updating the Press on the 2021 Auditor General’s report at the St. George’s Cathedral Conference room on Wednesday 4th January 2023, the ACC Boss stated that interested persons invited by the ACC are expected to provide information as fast as possible, adding that various arrests have been made with certain interested persons bringing in checks as payment for missing monies.
The Anti-Corruption Commissioner informed that the Le 560,000,000,000 (Five Hundred and Sixty Billion) missing in the Audit report is money that could be used for developmental purposes but said somebody somewhere is holding on to the said money or somebody is not doing enough to recover the said amount of money.
Francis Ben Keifala disclosed that staff at the Ministry of Information and Communication and the National Minerals Agency have already brought in checks as payment for monies missing and has asked them to pay the checks and bring receipts of payment to the ACC headquarters.
According to the ACC Boss they have identified the issues in the 2021 Audit report as quick fix issues and this year have deviated from their normal practice of prevention investigation as certain issues in the report are straightforward and need no delay.
He noted that interested persons failed to provide certain information to the Auditors but when they are called by the ACC they come along with checks.
Francis Ben Keifala disclosed that an estimated loss totaling Le 65,000,000,000(Sixty-Five Billion Leones) will be given a quick fix by substantially reducing the said amount, adding that Bonthe District Council Motor-Bikes for the Solid Waste Management Unit were not delivered, Falaba District Council fuel bought totaling Le 2.8 billion was not overly accounted for and those issues are going to be dealt with or investigated speedily.
He identified one quick fix category which is tax liability issues as 14 tax liability issues were identified totaling Le 560,204,000,000 (Five-Hundred and Sixty Billion, Two Hundred and Four Million Leones).
The ACC Boss stated that an estimated loss by the Auditors for Local Councils is Le 5.6 Billion in 14 district councils which includes Port Loko District Council Le 2.3 Billion, Kambia District Council Le 1.4 Billion, Tonkolili District Council Le 1 Billion, Makeni City Council Le 96 Million and Freetown City Council Le 324 Million and a payment of Le 57 Million by FCC for work not done.
Lawyer Francis Ben Keifala disclosed an estimated general cash loss totaling US$116,238,000 (One Hundred and Sixteen Billion Two Hundred and Thirty Eight Thousand Dollars) by the government due to issues of procurement which he said did not include unbanked resources, Diplomatic Missions and revenue generating institutions totaling US$116,238,000 by Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
He stated that the Ministry for Basic and Secondary School Education unaccounted for Le 49,000,000,000 (Forty-Nine Billion Leones), Ministry of Defense Le 25,000,000,000 (Twenty-Five Billion), Ministry of Transport and Aviation Le 10,000,000,000 (Ten Billion Leones), Ministry of Health and Sanitation Le5.4 (Five Billion Leones), Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Le 4.2 Billion and Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Food Security Le 1.9 Billion.
He added that a loan of Le 15 Billion was given to the Sierra Leone Airport Authority, Sierra Leone Coastal Services, Sierra Leone Transport Corporation but have failed to start making payment as per the agreement and these loans were taken from the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank.
Another category is the revenue generation category as the number of targeted institutions is 18 and the amount involve is Le65, 000,000,000 (Sixty-Five Billion) plus US$132,000,000(One Hundred and Thirty-Two Thousand Dollars) as cash loss due to unpaid levies, non-payment of PAYE and payment without supporting documents and unbanked revenue, adding that there is missing amount of Le 35,000,000,000 (Thirty-Five Billion) from the security sector.
He noted that people have collecting revenues with evidence that they recovered the said amount of monies but revenues were not banked which means they failed to take it to the bank for it to reflect in the Consolidated Revenue Fund and these institutions include Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources Le 1.3 Billion (One Billion), the Ministry of Lands Housing and Country Planning Le 3 Billion (Three Billion) for 2020, Le 1.7 Billion (One Billion), Le 220 Million (Two Hundred and Twenty Million), Le 2.4 Billion (Two Billion) respectively, the Ministry of Water Resources various amount, the Office of the Administrator and Registrar General Le 73,000,000 (Seventy-Three Billion), Bank of Sierra Leone, Sierra Leone Ports Authority, Sierra Leone Roads Transport Corporation, Civil Aviation Authority, National Revenue Authority, Electricity Distribution Supply Authority, Guma Valley Water Company, NASSIT, National Minerals Agency, Petroleum Directorate, Sierra Leone Produce Marketing Board, Sierra Leone Roads Authority and Universal Access Development Fund
The ACC Boss further stated that Diplomatic missions have been operating as if they are not part of Sierra Leone due to their non-compliance with financial procedures, he said these Missions collect revenues, payment for Visas and used these revenues in their respective places without following necessary authorization and therefore there is an estimated cash loss of US$3.5 Million, 18,000Euro, 753,000,Pound Sterling accordingly and the losses he said include the Embassy in Washington account to 2.9 Billion Dollars and 2,985,000 US Dollars, the Permanent Mission at the United Nations is estimated US$3,000 and US$59,000, South Korea US$178,000, Germany US$ 124,000, Brussels US$59,000 and United Kingdom US$751,000 respectively.
The ACC Boss reiterated that his team of investigator has identified the issues as quick fix issues which mean there is one person to provide them with all the answers.
Francis Ben Keifala maintained that most of the issues in the report are leadership issues emanating from failure of leadership from people in various stages.
