Bra Parrot promised the people of Sierra Leone that, he will not let them down in terms of giving them accurate and correct information at all times.

The most respected fearless, patriotic and uncompromising bird has never told lies to the people he stands for.

That is more the reason the bird is so much loved by the people.

It goes without saying that, not everybody will have the privilege to lay hands on these very important document, that is why the wise bird has taken upon himself to educate and or inform the general public about the all-important called document (AUDITOR-GENERAL’S REPORT ON THE ACCOUNTS OF SIERRA LEONE).

Sometimes, the wise bird has sleepless nights just by turning the pages of this important document.

The wise bird was quick to turn to page 209 of the auditor’s report 2022 with the caption titled NJALA UNIVERSITY-2022 with sub-heading titled Withholding Taxes not paid to NRA.

As the wise bird was reading through, he noticed from the report that, withholding taxes totaling SLE 283,523.50 for the secretariat and SLE66,828.18 for the Bo Campus all were deducted from payments made to the suppliers and contractors for the goods, works and services in 2022 but unfortunately there was no evidence of payment to NRA, the report states.

On page 210 of the same report with sub-heading, PROJECT EXPENDITURE RETURNS not submitted for audit purposes.

According to section 90(1a) of the PFM Act 2016 it stipulates that for the purpose of conducing audit required under section 119 of the Constitution, this Act, or any other enactment, the Auditor-General requires any person to provide him or any auditor appointed by him with information, evidence, books, records, returns and or documents.

In spite of the above, the wise bird noticed that, the University is to account for the utilization of SLE 1,969,933.01 recorded in the general ledgers and cashbooks as expenditure for various projects accounts.

On the same page below, the wise bird also noticed from the report that, the total project income reported was SLE 2,015, 218 whilst the total project income as per the revised submitted as Financial Statement was SLE 53, 969, 933.01; a difference of SLE 51,954 715.01.

 The wise bird saw a lot of discrepancies in terms of putting figures together.

In the next edition Bra Parrot will make in depth analysis on the issue to show the disparity of the figures.