By Edward Vamboi
There has been divergent views in auditing imprests and in a bid to throw light on that, Audit Service Sierra Leone on the 2nd March, 2020 as part of its public education and information drive dilated on the procedures in the audit of imprests stressing that Part 10 of the Public Financial Management Regulations 2018, deals exclusively with the establishment, utilisation and retirement of imprests.
According to Section 117(1) of the Public Financial Management Regulations 2018 an imprest fund is established for making payments of petty expenditure that cannot be made through the ordinary payment process required under the Act and the Regulations without undue inconvenience.
In other words an imprest can be defined as a fund disbursed to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for small items of expenditure and restored to a fixed amount periodically. It can also be referred to as an amount disbursed to an MDA to undertake a specific activity. Imprests are paid into the accounts of the MDAs in advance, and the MDAs are required to retire imprest disbursed in full.
There is what is known as a Standing Imprest which is an amount allocated/disbursed to an MDA for the payment of small items of expenditure and utilised amount of which can be replenished upon retirement and request. Standing imprest is maintained throughout a financial year.
The other type of imprest is Special Imprest which is established for making specific payments in respect of specific activities or events. A special imprest is not replenished and must be fully retired 30 days after the completion of the activity.
Section 119(2) of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone mandates the Auditor-General to audit the public accounts of Sierra Leone and all public offices. It further states that the Auditor-General shall have access to all books, records, returns and other documents relating or relevant to those accounts. The MDAs expenditure relating to imprests are part of the records, returns and documents submitted to auditors for audit purpose.
The main objective of auditing imprests is to verify whether a particular MDA complies with Sections 117 to 124 of the Public Financial Management Regulations, 2018.
When we look at the procedures involved in auditing imprests it will be realized that first the auditors establish whether the auditee maintained standing imprest and/or requested and received special imprest during the period under audit by reviewing the budget and the bank account of the auditee,
reviewing the IFMIS expense analysis printout and interviewing key personnel of the entity. When once the existence of imprest is confirmed, the auditors will then request for all retirements relating to the imprest and review them to ensure that they are appropriate and complete,
It must be confirmed that special imprests are utilised only for the intended purposes and fully retired, There is also the need to confirm that the entity comply with the sections on imprests and issue query on any deviations or exceptions observed.
The unsatisfactory response and supporting evidence to query or observation on imprests form part of the audit issues that goes into the Auditor-General’s Annual Report that is sent to parliament in line with section 119(4) of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone.
Imprest holders are therefore advised to fully comply with the provisions in Sections 117 to 124 of the Public Financial Management Regulations, 2018 in the management of imprest.
It has been established that Audit Service Sierra Leone will continue to carry out its mandate of being the guardian of Sierra Leone’s economic security.
