By Ragan M. Conteh

The Deputy Speaker of Parliament who doubles as the Chairman of the Public Account Committee in Parliament, Hon Ibrahim Tawa Conteh has informed that his committee has written letters to the offices of the President, Vice President and Chief Minister to appear in Parliament regarding the Audit Service Report queries.

According to Hon. Conteh, if anyone is found culpable in all the audit reports queries they will pay all what got missing.

He said the PAC is going to meet all those officials in those offices with a quorum and sit with them to settle the issues raised by Auditors.

“My committee has no boundary that is why it has written to the Offices of the President, Vice President and the Chief Minister’s to face the committee for scrutiny,” he stressed.

Earlier, Hon Ibrahim Conteh noted that some MDAs have been faulting on financial mismanagement, including poor record keeping and failing to observe procurement rules while engaged in massive mismanagement of government funds.

He said MDAs that have been facing the PAC have been given unnecessary excuses which he said has been hindering government development programmes.

It will be recalled that MDAs probed so far by the committee have been unable to properly account for billions of leones, he added.

“We will stop at nothing until we retrieve all our monies from everyone owing us,” the chairman asserted.

He also urged MDAs, and private entities to ensure that their documentation is complete and accurate before appearing before the committee. He made it clear that the PAC’s primary focus is not on reviewing documents but on collecting the funds owed and returning them to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

“We are not interested in documents; all we want is to collect monies and send them to the Consolidated Fund,” he reiterated.

Hon. Conteh earlier took the opportunity to highlight the selfless and dedicated work of the committee members, noting that unlike other agencies such as the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), which retains a percentage of recovered funds, the PAC does not keep any portion of the monies collected.

Despite this, the committee remains steadfast in its commitment to serving the nation.

“Despite not having any benefits apart from our salaries, this PAC remains devoted to our patriotic duty, which is to collect all monies and send them to the national budget,” Hon. Conteh asserted.

He further emphasized that: “This PAC is different from others because we are only interested in collecting the state’s money, without compromise or favour.”