The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chaired by the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Hon. Ibrahim Tawa Conteh and other members of the Committee have probed local councils at the South-East Region regarding queries raised into 2021 and 2022 Auditor General reports.
In his statements, Hon. Tawa Conteh explained the Committee’s crucial oversight mandate including the pivotal role the Committee plays in promoting transparency and accountability in the governance sphere of the country.
The Chairman promised to follow and implement the law to its fullest and encouraged the councils to collect credible data with the view to increasing the generation of their own-source revenues to undertake developments in their localities.
During the hearings, the Committee observed that several documents it had earlier requested for were not available including annual budgets, development plans and audited financial statements.
The Committee however proceeded with its hearings and heard issues relating to administrative and financial discrepancies. As a result, vote controllers and other core staffs of councils, both past and present were thoroughly scrutinized on accountable financial records as indicated in 2021 and 2022 Auditor General’s Reports.
The Chairman and other members of the committee did some unannounced visits to certain project sites to ascertain and confirm the levels of work done, given value for money.
Many audit queries were either wholly or partially resolved pending a determination by the auditors and others were recommended for follow-ups including the sale of Bo Club House, which the committee had ordered an injunction for anyone to stay action, pending an engagement with the chief, former chairman, Albertson and the land owning families, who had sold the property after the expiration of the lease.
The Committee ordered certain councils to employ revenue collectors in order to increase revenue mobilization, and also spoke on the need for councils to collaborate and cooperate with chiefdom authorities to mobilize more revenues for the development of their localities.
The Committee strongly recommended that the Valuation Units in the councils to be supervised directly by the Chief Administrators to tap more information for purposes of revenue generation.
The Committee also observed that councils are weak in the collection of own-source revenues and recommended that certain councils should increase their staff strength and collaborate with chiefdom authorities to collect more revenues to develop their communities.
The Committee recommended for the Local Government Service Commission should provide training to enhance robust revenue mobilization for Chief Administrators, their Deputies and other staff of councils.
Conclusively, the Chairman said “doing the right thing is difficult,” but admonished them to always “try to do the right things,” in light of transparency and accountability in governance.