The 2022 Auditor General’s Report has unveiled a shocking revelation of the APEX Bank and Rural Finance Network Model Contrary to the Aide Memoire of 2022.

According to the Audit Report, “we were not provided with evidence that the consultancy, strategic business plan and action plan have been carried out by the Project”.

The AG’s Report recommended that the Project Coordinator and the Managing Director of Apex Bank should submit evidence of implementation. Otherwise, the document says, the responsible officer(s) will be held liable in the event of funds being withheld by donors.

According to the official response, “We submitted two proposals to the IFAD for ‘No Objections’ (copies are available for verification) and were rejected by the donors. It was agreed with the donor representatives during the scaling-up, that the proposed review will be done when the scaling-up becomes effective and a budget was included in the Cost Tables for that”.

Auditor’s comment stated that, there was no evidence of the consultancy, neither were there strategic business plan and action plan submitted for audit verification. The issue remains unresolved.

In the construction of the Apex Bank Building, the Audit report says, Paragraph 9 of the Aide Memoire 2022 states: “The first floor, financed with project resources, was 90% completion as at the time of the mission. The Government of Sierra Leone approved a budget of US$2 million to complement the financing of a four-storey building request for the payment of a first tranche of US$1 million for the two first quarters of 2022 has been made by the Project. It is expected that the building will be completed within one year”.

The report further informed that, “Our review revealed that during 2022 the Government of Sierra Leone provided a total of SLE6,932,412 for the construction of the additional floors. We however noted that the construction work for the first floor was yet to be completed even though the contract completion date had elapsed since July 2021”.

The Official Response, on this, was that, “there was a meeting with the contractors. However, the ground-floor is now 95% completed. A termination warning letter has been sent to the contractor and no response has been received. We will, however, have an engagement with the contractor for the work to be completed. With regards the amount received from government, we have awarded a contract for the top-floor, and the work is ongoing and floor pavement-slab has been completed”.

The report unveiled that, the Auditor’s comment regarding the delay in the completion of the Apex Bank building, indicates that there was no evidence to suggest that the letter of termination was sent to the contractor. The report further states that the first floor of the building had not been completed.

The report ends with a statement that, “The issue remains unresolved”.