ACC Czar Outlines Governance Issues Revealed in Recent Audit Report
By Abdul Rahman Bah
On Thursday, January 9, 2025, the Integrity House Conference Room in Tower Hill, Freetown served as the backdrop for a pivotal press conference led by Anti-Corruption Commissioner Francis Ben Kaifala, Esq. His address sheds light on the pressing systemic governance challenges facing Sierra Leone, the critical role of oversight institutions, and the strategic initiatives of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) aimed at addressing the troubling revelations in the Auditor General’s report. With a resolute tone, Kaifala reinforced the ACC’s commitment to fostering accountability and rectifying governance deficiencies that permeate various sectors.
Kaifala commenced his speech by expressing heartfelt appreciation for the relentless efforts of oversight institutions, particularly the Auditor General’s Office. He noted that the office’s reports serve as revealing windows into the urgent governance gaps within ministries, agencies, foreign embassies, and other public entities. These reports, he highlighted, are not merely documentation; they are invaluable resources that identify actionable issues and function as potent whistleblowing instruments, enhancing the ACC’s ability to faithfully combat corruption.
The Commissioner underscored the necessity for a robust partnership between the ACC and Parliament, with particular emphasis on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). He commended the PAC for its recent initiatives targeting public officials who have failed to uphold governance standards.
During his speech, Kaifala referenced productive discussions with the committee’s Chair, Honorable Howard Bontemps, emphasizing that the interplay between the two institutions must be characterized by mutual respect and collaborative efforts to comprehensively address governance failures. He revealed that the ACC had meticulously submitted a series of detailed analyses to Parliament, outlining critical findings from the Auditor General’s report, which included extensive records of financial discrepancies and the identification of individuals and institutions responsible for these lapses.
In reflecting on the persistent governance challenges that plague Sierra Leone, Kaifala pointed to the deeply entrenched issues of negligence, impunity, and collusion that infiltrate public institutions. He asserted that effective leadership is paramount in the pursuit of accountability, stressing that every delegation of responsibility must be paired with diligent oversight to ensure that tasks are executed thoroughly. He lamented a pervasive culture of impunity that often shields senior officials from accountability, whereas junior staff members frequently bear the brunt of blame for administrative shortcomings.
A notable point of concern for the Commissioner was the difficulty inherent in holding high-ranking officials accountable for governance irregularities. He explained that many of these irregularities often originate from financial and administrative practices executed by lower-level employees, and a lack of direct evidence linking senior officials to these issues, significantly undermines accountability efforts. Kaifala provided stark illustrations of such irregularities, such as the troubling practices of employing ghost workers, engaging in improper financial transactions, and grappling with persistent discrepancies in revenue management—issues that have become alarmingly recurrent across various ministries and agencies.
With an eye for detail, Kaifala presented specific findings gleaned from the Auditor General’s report, enhancing his address with concrete examples of governance failures that included revenue improperly withheld from the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF), undocumented duty waivers, unpaid lease fees associated with agricultural equipment, and salaries disbursed to deceased or unavailable personnel. The sheer scale of these financial discrepancies, amounting to billions of Leones, underscored a glaring deficiency in oversight and accountability within the governance framework of Sierra Leone. Kaifala called for urgent and decisive action to address these discrepancies, emphasizing the critical need for transparency, responsibility, and strengthened administrative practices at all governmental levels.
In his examination of irregularities, Kaifala outlined pervasive issues across a spectrum of ministries, departments, local councils, and diplomatic missions. He highlighted major ministries—including Health, Basic and Senior Education, Mines and Mineral Resources, and Tourism and Culture—where significant mismanagement of fixed assets, non-payment of withholding taxes, unverified salary disbursements, and payments for incomplete work have been identified. Instances of financial discrepancies within diplomatic missions were no less concerning, where unaccounted medical expenses, unauthorized end-of-service benefits, and unbanked revenue were prevalent. Specifically, embassies located in Ghana, Guinea, and Liberia faced allegations ranging from unpaid NASSIT contributions, to the misuse of consular funds and concerning patterns of unaccounted expenditure amounting to thousands of dollars. Local councils and agencies were not exempt from these challenges, grappling with issues such as the failure to retrieve withholding taxes, unbanked revenue, and unsupported financial transactions.
Kaifala attributed these systemic failures to a lack of robust leadership rather than outright corruption. He criticized the accountable parties—heads of ministries, departments, and agencies—for their inadequate responses to audit discrepancies and their failure to resolve issues brought forth by auditors. Additionally, he spotlighted the absence of clear policies or disciplinary manuals to govern the management of administrative misconduct.
