Mayor Herbert Williams in financial mismanagement

The All People’s Congress (APC) seems to be encouraging Captain Smith’s Titanic procedures that will affect their chances of winning the 2012 Presidential, Parliamentary and Local Government Elections. The APC cannot be referred to as the Titanic party of Sierra Leone as they were able to win the 2007 Presidential elections with 51 percent and Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) getting 49 percent. Any sensible analyst can predict that with the current policies and strategy APC will not be able to win 2012 first vote.

This article will cover how Mayor Herbert Williams (in photo) policies, procedures, governance and financial management strategy is helping to sink the” APC ship” in the Western Area. The Titanic boat of 1912 was claimed to be unsinkable but that was an unfortunate statement and one which haunt both builders and owner. The Titanic was the largest vessel in the world when she entered service. With APC/PMDC 51 to 49 SLPP the APC cannot be referred to as secured for the 2012 elections.

Captain Smith was the name of the captain of the Titanic ship and he is the one responsible for the loss of Titanic. Smith failed the passengers and crew of Titanic as he failed to heed ice warnings, and did not slow his ship when ice was reported directly in his path. The British government Board of Trade was blamed because they allowed Titanic to sail with insufficient life boat accommodation and had not followed advised warnings.

Will President Ernest Koroma as Chief of State allow Mayor Herbert Williams to play the role of Captain Smith by helping to sink the APC ship come 2012?  Will Commissioner Joseph Kamara allow Mayor Herbert Williams to carry out financial mismanagement and allow such a big fish to go free?

Mayor Herbert Williams aka Captain Smith has failed to increase salary of his staffs or carry out investment appraisal but continues to use the same strategies that he used to manage the former American locally based Security Company called Wackenut. However, the Americans did not allow him to sink the ship but fired him because of corruption and sold out the business.

Mayor Herbert Williams aka Captain Smith has been investing tax payers’ money on the following failed projects that can be classified as financial mismanagement:

• Disbursement of 151 million for workshop
• Le 5 million per week on Cotton tree
• Over 200 million to set up retreat and
• Now he intends to spend over Le 1 Billion on Morgan Heritage

Mayor Herbert Williams should be aware that Freetown City Council should carry out good financial management procedures that will be essential for the delivery of good public services. Investing Le 1 billion Leones on Morgan Heritage is complete abuse of position, wrong decision for the short, medium and long term. Freetown City Council should be accountable to citizens for stewardship and use of resources.

Mayor Herbert Williams lacks good corporate governance skills but should try to adopt good financial management by understanding his roles, understand what the city needs to be modernise and assessing the impact of his decisions. Mayor Williams should be trained on financial governance and leadership. He is not aware of what his job requires the culture of his job and thinks he is answerable to no one.

President Koroma is the Chief of State and should ensure that Mayor Herbert Williams follow the principles of good financial management that will provide services to taxpayers, deliver their priorities and objectives. I have therefore decided to list the following projects that he should be involved in or helping other ministries to achieve.

• Security and Fire service
• Road network and transportation
• Immigration, Births and Death
• Gender, family, housing and residential homes
• Sports
• Education
• Trading
• Justice system
• Tourism and culture
• Postal services

Agenda for Change and Financial Leadership

I was reading PEEP online and read how former Mayor Stanley Johnson was harassed by FCC tax collectors. The FCC failed to prepare, analyze and verify his business records which led to wrong tax calculations. This shows that Agenda for Change will not be achieved with poor monitoring system.

Chief of State, President Ernest Koroma should ensure that ministries, departments, agencies are governed by strong and accountable financial leaders. This can be achieved by ensuring that the leaders carryout strategic and consultative approach and recognise their shared accountability for achievement. Our Chief of State, Agenda for Change is failing because his leaders are finding it hard to communicate their long term vision instead they continue to waste tax payers fund by organising expensive retreats.

Agenda for Change should be achieved by setting strong accountable leadership via oversight. At the moment our Chief of State needs a change in administration, change his team, and change his structures by carrying out reorganisation or structural reform.

Reorganisation, structural reform, performance management, policy reform will not be achieved by setting up expensive workshops or retreats. We can only achieve the following by recognising and acting on financial problems, change the present management structures and consulting the public.

At the moment there is no planning framework for annual budgets, clear resource planning that will enable ministries, departments and agencies to improve value for money and deliver Sierra Leone from donor debt. I read that SLPP left 500 Billion Leones and now our debt stands at $722 million.

Anti-Corruption Commission and Auditors General Department

No news at the moment as to recovery that will lead to salary increase in the public service. ACC should employ Forensic accountants that will be able to investigate and interprets over spending, identify and understand financial risk. ACC should use forensic skills to also deal with bankruptcies as most companies and individuals will declare themselves broke whenever a recovery process starts. ACC should be able to investigate financial transactions like NASSIT Ferry, Auditors report and try to get all perpetrators not only department heads like the NRA Allieu Sesay. What happens to the signatories or other staffs that authorize corrupt transactions?

At this point only ministers, department heads are facing prosecutions but ACC should be reminded that fraud, mismanagement or embezzlement cannot be performed without collusion therefore signatories and suppliers should also be prosecuted. ACC should be able to investigate businesses, financial statements or economic reality of the person or entity that they are investigating.

By Dylan Sogie-Thomas

The author Dylan Sogie-Thomas CFE, CertIA, CertIFR, PG Dip, ACCA Finalist is a student in Masters in Corporate Governance/Graduate ICSA at the London South Bank University United Kingdom.

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