By Lemuella Tarawallie
The Chairman of the Public Account Committee in Parliament, Hon. Ibrahim Tawa Conteh, on Monday summoned the Director of Lands, Tamba Dauda, to answer questions as to why Le461,100,00 and US$50,000 were not deposited into the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
During the public hearing of this Parliamentary Committee at Committee Room No.1 at Parliament Building at Tower Hill in Freetown, the Principal Auditor at Audit Service Sierra Leone, Dauda Brima, stated that the said monies collected by the Ministry of Lands were not deposited into the Consolidated Revenue Fund.
He noted that during the financial year of 2022, Audit Service Sierra Leone discovered that there were no reconciliations between the Ministry of Lands’ Records Unit and the National Revenue Authority (NRA) for the period under review.
Dauda Brima stated that during the auditing processes, they discovered that the NRA cashbooks were greater than those of the Ministry of Lands records by SLE689, 277 for October and November 2022, and that similarly Audit Service Sierra Leone noticed that the cash Book balance in respect of the ministry were greater than those of the NRA’s by SLE12,030,169 for September and December 2022. He maintained that there were no reconciliations between the Ministry‘s record Unit and the NRA for the period under review.
Questioning the Director of Lands, Hon. Ibrahim Tawa Conteh asked Tamba Dauda whether or not the Ministry of Lands did pay directly into the ministry’s bank account or into NRA’s account.
The Director of Lands Tamba stated that the ministry did make payments into the Consolidated Revenue Fund through the Rokel Commercial Bank and the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank via “a sub treasury account for the Ministry of Lands”.
At this point, Hon. Ibrahim Tawa Conteh ordered the Clerk of the Public Account Committee to write a letter to the Bank of Sierra Leone (BSL), mandating them to solicit statements from both banks for the Ministry of Lands for the periods 2021 to date.