Sierra Leone Police Face Public Account Committee
The Sierra Leone Police (SLP) on Tuesday, 31st July, 2019 faced the Public Account Committee (PAC) in the House of Parliament to discuss on the 2017 Auditor General’s report.
The issue of internally generated revenue which is allegedly utilized by the SLP without the approval of the Ministry of Finance (MoF) was discussed.
Section 51 (1) Public Financial Management Act 2016 states that every person that collects, receives, or has in custody of shall promptly deposit it in a bank account within short period as prescribed by the Accountant General and a person who is not authorized a head of a budgetary agency.
It was observed that 3226, 624,000 generated as own source revenue for various chargeable services offered by the SLP was retained in contradiction to the above regulation and without the written permission MoF.
It was revealed that the SLP has been breaching the above mentioned regulations for the past six years.
The Principal Accountant for the SLP, Joshua Ellien maintained that the late disbursement of budget by the Ministry of Finance and stressed that they are still waiting to receive the 2019 proposed budget in the tune of ten billion Leones.
The Acting Chairman for PAC, Hon. Abdul Titus said assets receipts not updated and depreciation not charged adding that they fixed assets register was not updated and there was no evidence of depreciation deducted from the cost of assets of the SLP. According to the Chairman, this was evident by the fact that the SLP did not maintain a comprehensive and updated inventory register to include the addition i.e., the date of purchase, the cost of assets and code of assets.
It was recommended that the Director of Assets Management is in Consultation with the Principal Accountant and head of Procurement to ensure fix assets register maintained.
Hon. Dixon Rogers of the SLPP said the Police should not allow to be investigated because they responsible to investigate criminals that commit crimes.
By Amira Tatayea Bangura
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