“Subvention Request Must Reflect on Audit Report ”

-ANTHONY GREENE

By Mohamed Kamara

A research fellow at the London School of Economics Dr. Anthony Greene while making reference on Sierra Leone’s decades old Civil and Public Service massive misappropriation of subvention funding has said that in order to minimize corruption in government run institutions, it is timely that subventions are allocated to Ministries, Departments and Agencies pending on the outcome of Audit Report publish each financial year and if adopted will create financial discipline and discourage uncalculated wastages of funds.

Dr. Greene said in the sub region, Sierra Leone is one country which is keen to audit its institutions over decades, but what it lacks is to institute disciplinary measures, but what and institute an untainted responsibility to all those who for one reason or the other found wanting for embezzlement of state funds. He said the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) upon their interventions only recover little of the stolen sum. He said must of those found wanting are left to go back to their jobs without adequate penalization. He said the vacuum the uncompleted project creates gives rise to the government to go on the Internal Bilateral and Multilateral borrowing spree to fill the financial vacuum left behind.

Dr. Greene said this is why the masses cast blame on governments for un-fulfilled promises. He noted that in Sierra Leone, disciplinary moves on individuals are focused on their political leverage. He said the operatives usually depend on influential to lobby against the adoption of punitive actions at a commission cost. He said if massive cutbacks are implemented and stage by stage implementations of projects introduce, he said both civil and public servants will seize from financial malpractices which has become the order of the day.

Dr. Greene said the National Revenue Authority (NRA) collection of tax comes from the people’s money. He said it’s no secret that government largely depends on NRA revenue collection to support the wage bill which faces great challenges over the expansion of more subsidiary entities  with political appointees to head at exorbitant salaries, until that is mended, Salone economy is always twist and turn.