By Amin Kef Sesay
Sahr Lahai Jusu, the Financial Secretary at the Ministry of Finance, has on behalf of the Ministry reaffirmed Government’s continued support to Audit Service Sierra Leone.
He made that statement on the 18th March 2021 during which he informed the public that the Auditor General, Lara Taylor-Pierce, has acceded to open the Treasury Single Account, a move which he called a victory for the laws governing the Public Fiscal and Management Control in Sierra Leone.
The Financial Secretary explained that an executive order was issued on the night of April 12th, 2017 mandating all Government Revenue collecting Agencies to transfer funds collected through the Consolidated Revenue Fund in-line with both the Public Financial Management Act 2021 and the Fiscal Management and Control Act of 2017.
He emphasized that the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has always been supportive of the ASSL being one of the highest entity that provides oversight over the use of public resources, noting that over the years there has been a constant increment in yearly budget allocations to ASSL: Le27,000,000,000, in 2017, Le41,000,000,000 in 2019 and Le53,000,000,000 in 2021.
He reasoned that the ASSL should comply with the law because no Government institution should be seen to be acting at variance with the legal regimes instituted to maintain a robust centralized National Revenue Management system.
The Financial Secretary emphasized the concept of parliamentary sovereignty, that is, no institution or individual must act on directives or legal opinions in contravention of the laws instituted by Parliament in Sierra Leone in respect of public financial management and control.
Sahr Jusu recalled that before 2017 revenue generated by agencies were collected, controlled, and utilized independently by those agencies without a robust and prudent financial regulatory regime thus necessitating the need for monies collected from all Government Collecting Agencies to be held in a Single Account for proper monitoring and management.
He read a portion of the commitment which the Ministry of Finance and Audit Service Sierra Leone made dated 2nd March 2021: “The audit service Sierra Leone should liaise with the office of the Accountant General to establish the Single Treasury Account at the Bank of Sierra Leone into which the said Audit fees should be transferred.”
