By Ragan M. Conteh
The Audit Service Sierra Leone Report has indicted the National Commission for Democracy against payment without adequate supporting documents.
The Auditor General’s report observed that payment vouchers totaling SLE126,804 were without adequate supporting document.
It furthered that payments totaling SLE6,000 were without evidence of recipients’ signatures and Bank withdrawals totaling SLE9,250 were without payment vouchers.
The institution recommended that the Finance Director should ensure that all transactions from inception to completion should be supported by the relevant documentary evidence, which must be retained for audit and reference purposes.
The Audit Service said the Finance Director should ensure that evidence of the signature of the recipient should be submitted to the ASSL. It stated that the Regional Finance Assistant should ensure that payment vouchers are raised for every transaction to ensure that all payments are authorized and verified.
The official response is that, the commission has acted upon the expenditures and the relevant documents are open for review and inspection. The Commission further responded that actions have been taken on these transactions and the relevant documents are available for inspection and Management had appropriately instructed Regional Offices to submit liquidation vouchers and receipts for petty cash expenditures to the head office.
The internal auditor has also outlined internal controls for the management of funds overseen by provincial officers to ensure proper authorization and verification, with the aim of preventing future incidents of this nature.
Auditor’s comment stated that supporting documents for transactions totaling SLE75,594 representing 60% of the queried amount were provided and submitted, leaving an outstanding amount of SLE51,210.
The issue is partially resolved. The ASSL said they were not provided with evidence of signature from the recipients to acknowledge the said payment. The issue therefore remains unresolved.
The Audit Service went on to state that they were not provided with payment vouchers for the said amount during the verification exercise. The issue therefore remains unresolved.