As if by clockwork, barely a week goes by without something coming out of this present government that shows that the SLPP are here for their own agenda, which goes against the interest of the public. And yet still without fail, someone from the party makes a lame duck attempt to explain away the error, while yet another functionary steps up to debunk that explanation.
In yet another clear revelation of possible theft and or waste of public funds, there is a tripartite mudslinging going in a vague attempt to explain billions of Leones of discrepancies in an allocation made to the National Sports Authority (NSA) and the Ministry of Sports (MOS) meant for the SLFA to facilitate Leone Stars’ trip, stay, participation, and return from the AFCON qualifying match between Sierra Leone and Lesotho in Maseru, and the home game against Benin here in Freetown.
The Ministry of Finance in an obvious attempt to relieve itself of the responsibility of having to explain what has happened between the NSA, MOS and SLFA, put out a press release on Friday that has once again left this government with its foot in its mouth while trying to explain what has happened.
According to the Ministry of Finance press release; ‘payments towards Sierra Leone’s participation in the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches against Lesotho and Benin and the Paralympic Games in Tunisia’ dated Friday, 26th March 2021, it disbursed Le 11,284,782,657 to the NSA/MOS for the remaining games between Sierra Leone and Lesotho, and Benin. From the Le 11.3 billion, Le 8,835,325,769 was given to the NSA for the Lesotho game while the remainder Le 2,449,456,888 was disbursed for the home game against Benin here in Sierra Leone.
But in an effort to distance itself from the disbursed amount, the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) categorically stated “that at no point in time has the SLFA been privy to the published amounts Le 8,835,325,769 by neither the National Sports Authority (NSA) nor Ministry of Sports (MOS) despite several requests by the SLFA officials.”
Well, that’s a bummer. If the SLFA is responsible for facilitating all things football, then why after repeated requests from the SLFA to know about the disbursed money and the budget that the game can go on in Lesotho without the SLFA knowing how much was being spent?
But the real eye-opener here is the disclosure by the SLFA that while the Ministry of Finance disbursed and approved of Le 8,835,325,769 to the NSA for Lesotho, “the FA can confirm that it officially requested from the NSA/MOS the sum of Le1,923,750,000 for the Lesotho vs Sierra Leone match in Maseru.” If the SLFA can execute all the needs for the travelling team and other staff for Le 1,923,750,000, then why did the Ministry of Finance approve and disburse Le 8,835,325,769 to the NSA for the same job?
While the NSA/MOS was not involved in a bidding process, however, the rule of thumb would be for it to present the lower cost of accomplishing the Lesotho trip as per SLFA’s budget to NSA, than making out a much higher budget to the Ministry of Finance, which it approved and made disbursements. In government buying and securing goods and services, the general procurement and international best practice is that you go for the lowest bidder that can accomplish the task at hand spending less than the other bidders. So if the association tasked with overseeing the football sector, who should have all the requisite knowledge of how to travel with a national football team as they have been doing so since 1960, say they can accomplish the task by spending Le 1,923,750,000, then how can the NSA and MOS qualify spending Le 8,835,325,769? Did the NSA/MOS give the SLFA the Le 1,923,750,000 and together pocket the rest?
As if to prove the SLFA right in their estimation of how much was needed to facilitate the Lesotho game, the NSA/MOS was given Le 2,449,456,888 for the home game against Benin, for which the SLFA “officially requested from the NSA/MOS the sum of Le 2,450,060,000.” But how come the difference between what the SLFA asked for Lesotho and what was given to the NSA/MOS was so massive when compared to the same for the upcoming Benin game?
So, now that Leone Stars have done their best in Lesotho, which leaves much to be desired, how does the NSA/MOS plan on qualifying how they spent the disbursed sum? If the expected change is the difference between what was given to NSA and what SLFA say they can do same for then, what was the remainder of the money spent on? And why is all that money being spent on football when we have not brought home an aluminium medal in football for what seems a lifetime, while our para-athletes that just returned from the Para Athletics Grand Prix in Tunisia brought home four medals, but yet only received Le 542,487,191?
In an attempt to deflect responsibility for this obvious contradictory and ironic few days’ worth of spending spree and to clear itself, the Ministry of Finance put out the press release to say that it had done its duty to the promotion of the national team. How the money was spent, it is saying, is not its responsibility. Does that sound anything similar to how monies are spent in Parliament?
Seeing the obvious trap in the Ministry’s press release, the SLFA in an attempt to prove itself clean in this matter put out their own press release clarifying hence debunking having received any money for the Lesotho game from the NSA/MOS. So if this is how much discrepancy can be involved in one match, then how has the Le 68,318,694,632.75 given to the NSA/MOS by Finance “since April 2018 for promotion, development and international participation of different sporting disciplines in the country” been spent? And finally, how is the SLFA handling all expenditures at the stadium ahead of the Benin match “without the financial assistance of the NSA and MOS” when Finance had disbursed Le 2,449,456,888 to NSA/MOS?
This leaves us with yet another bitter taste in our mouth. The questions are plenty, but we will ask a few, and leave the rest for the public to ponder on. Why was it necessary for the National Sports Council to be replaced by Paopa with the National Sport Authority in 2019? Sports writers from some leading papers say the NSA was created to create jobs for party functionaries, to act as a tool for direct control of the SLFA, and to politicise the very popular sporting sector of the country. Under the former Sports Council, the Minister was the chairman. Why didn’t Paopa continue with that set up but came up with a body that in practice acts very different from the MOS under which purview it falls?
Also, where are the receipts for the Lesotho trip? Where are the receipts for the amount disbursed by Finance to NSA/MOH since April 2018? What is the Ministry of Sports saying about how its agency the NSA is spending money? Also, how did the SLFA sit about and not know about how the money was spent to and from Lesotho?
Sadly, the sports writers expect that nothing as usual will come out of this public revelation of how public monies are disbursed and used, citing the recent ACC revelation of how disbursed monies are being handled in Parliament.