While presenting the 2017 Financial Audit report to lawmakers, the Auditor General, Audit Service Sierra Leone, told them that the previous Government spent a whooping sum of Le2.3 billion (an equivalent of USD 4.4 million) from the Consolidated Revenue Fund account at the Bank of Sierra Leone to defray cost on funeral expenses of some senior government officers. These government officials passed away without any regulation, policy or other legal instruments to justify the stated disbursements.
In the absence of a legal instrument, such disbursements could be considered illegal. Apart from the fact that no legal instrument existed for the disbursement of such funds, there was also no evidence to indicate how the stated amounts were expended on the funerals of the deceased. The report went on.
It further states that this may create suspicion that government’s much needed funds have been misappropriated.
The 2017 Auditor General’s report praised the level of controls over assessment, collection and reporting of Government revenue, noting that the recent focus has been largely on reducing government expenditure to help to balance the books.