By Amin Kef Sesay
In a Media Release dated 18th June, 2021 the country’s anti-graft institution stated that the public may recall that on the 9th February, 2021, it confirmed commencement of an investigation into the Office of the First Lady, related to the payments to and expenditures of public funds by the said Office following allegations of illegal access to Public Funds by holders of the said Conventional Office in Sierra Leone in recent years, including the Current First Lady.
In that light the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) stated how it wishes to inform the general public that it has concluded the probe and hereby confirms the following:
The Commission stated that the conclusions of the investigation established that the Office of the First Lady is not established by any specific law, but has been recognized and accepted as a Conventional Office within the governance architecture of Sierra Leone and had accordingly been accorded avenues to access Public funds, including travel per diems, projects and official responsibilities like State Dinners and entertainment for over 20 years.
According to the ACC, such is established by the fact that the Accountant-General’s Department confirmed resource allocations to the said Office and its accounts and expenditure were duly audited in 2019 by the Audit Service Sierra Leone as part of the audit process for Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the State.
The ACC furthered that its records confirmed that Billions of Leones had been received by the said Office for travel, medical and other attendant costs in each of the past 14 years and that the travels were verified and confirmed to have been within the established Government policy of access to the said funds.
It continued by stating how the Office of the First Lady had been engaged in charity works and the provision of targeted supports to the various occupants of the Office of the President with regard identified and specific projects for the past 14 years adding that Public funds were used to effect those supports and projects, including the “Women’s Initiative for Safer Health” (WISH) bed nets projects by former First Lady, Sia Nyama Koroma, with support from the Ministry of Social Welfare, Gender and Children’s Affairs, and the “Hands Off Our Girls” Campaign by First Lady, Fatima Bio, with support from the Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs.
The ACC maintained that with respect to specific payments made to the First Lady, Fatima Bio, it confirmed that it was done in compliance with Section 39 of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 that gives the State authority to expend State funds to unallocated Head of expenditure to a certain threshold, to “necessary” public cause(s) in the interest of the Public and that the said allocations were confirmed to be the exercise of the discretion provided by law to the Minister of Finance.
The Commission added that other issues of expenditure, including prudential financial management, procurement issues, the interface between charitable donations to the said Office with public funds, etc. will be dealt with within the framework of the Auditor-General’s Report 2019 saying they will be giving due deference to those recommendations and act on them accordingly.
The Anti-Corruption Commission stated that based on the above and upon analyzing the records of accounts, official approval documents and the legal and regulatory framework concerning payments made to the Office of the First Lady since 2007 to date, they therefore confirmed that there is not, at this stage, any criminal responsibility in the process of payments to and expenditures relating to, the Office of the First Lady further maintaining that the investigation has been accordingly closed by the ACC while the issues pertaining to the audit recommendation have been referred to the Prevention Department of the Commission for follow-up on the compliance by the Office of the First Lady with the Audit recommendations and other related prevention work in that regard.
It ended by extending thanks to the public for their interest and support and reassured the public of its commitment to protecting public funds as well as to address all levels of corruption throughout Sierra Leone.
