Monrovia – Since the reorganization of the General Auditing Commission (GAC) in June 2005, it has completed 178 audits, with 83 implemented under the watch of the current administration of Auditor General Yusador S. Gaye.
Report by Alpha Daffae Senkpeni – [email protected]
Between 2014 and 2018, over 95 audits have been completed but concerns about the government’s anti-graft body using these audit reports to prosecute alleged corrupt officials continue to linger.
This has, however, impacted how many Liberians see the work of the GAC with some critics labeling the commission as dormant in the fight against corruption.
Under the law, the GAC is mandated to conduct audit of government ministries and agencies and submit its findings to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Legislature – a joint committee comprising of representatives and senators.
The Committee thereby makes further recommendations to the Executive after its public hearing of the Commission’s audit reports.
According to Winsley Nanka, Deputy Auditor General for Audit Services, the PAC submitted several reports to the former president (Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf) but implementations are farfetched.
He said the PAC has produced about five reports containing over 25 audits by the GAC.
“It is now the Executive responsibility to implement those recommendations that the PAC has proffered to the Executive based on our audit reports,” he said.
“At the same time, we as auditors engaged the ministries and agencies about the control issues that are in the report for them to implement those recommendations for them to improve their operating efficiency.”
Practically, the GAC does two things after audits: it sends reports to the Legislature and helps ministries and agencies make amends in order to improve their performances.
But when reports are sent to the Legislature, the GAC says it expects the lawmakers to conduct hearing and ensure people who are held accountable in the report are recommended for prosecution through the Executive in keeping with the law.
Anti-graft institutions like the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) has always struggled to prosecute corruption cases, while the Ministry of Justice has also failed to gather evidence against individuals accused of corruption for further prosecution.
So far, since its establishment in 2008, the LACC has won just a case in 2010, based on evidence taken from the GAC audit report, while audit reports have also helped provide evidence for two other failed corruption cases flagged by the LACC.
While some of LACC and the Justice Ministry’s excuses about failing to prosecute alleged corrupt dealings point to insufficient evidence in the audit report for further litigation, the GAC argues that it has produced additional pieces of information to the LACC and that the anti-graft body has used them on the basis of indicting officials.
Like several anti-corruption institutions in the country, the GAC has also endured its fair share of criticisms about doing little to curb the misapplications of public resources.
Mr. Nanka said the agency does post audits, which means it conducts investigations when any alleged acts of corruption may have already happened at the agency/ministry.
“So during that process when we find issues that is border around fraud, by law, we refer it to the Justice ministry or to the LACC,” he said.
“But to resolve some of those issues, the audit report recommendations have to be implemented and the implementation of the audit reports’ recommendations is a responsibility of both the auditee and the Executive as to ensure that the recommendations are implemented.”
He said there would be reoccurrence of allegations of corruptions every year once the audit reports’ recommendations are not adhered to or implemented by the Executive.
“Because the audit recommendations are not being implemented, so when we go (back) to do audit we come out with almost the same findings.”
The Deputy AG asserts that the fight against corruption must be holistic and can’t be entrusted to a single branch of government.
He stressed that the Executive “must implement the audit recommendations;” the Legislature must be “robust enough” in conducting public hearing; and the Judiciary “has to play its part by ensuring there are speedy trails”.
System and control recommendations for line miniseries and agencies have to be implemented timely to avoid frequent reoccurrences, he said.
“Those are the things that will help ensure that accountability in the management of public resources.”
‘Absurd Allegations’
While the GAC is bothered by the recommendations of its reports being swept under the carpet and are making little impact to remedy the poor management of public resources, misinformation about its three top officials tempering with the law that brought the agency into being is also impeding the professional integrity of the Commission.
In recent weeks, media reports have been hovering over the legitimacy of Auditor General Yusador Gaye and her two deputies, Winsley S. Nanka and Foday G. Kiazolu.
These reports have alleged that the trio altered the law that governs the agency by extending their tenure.
But Nanka says the information is absurd, denying that the Commission did not temper with the law.
“The only way the law can be abrogated is through the Supreme Court.”
“The law was drafted by the import of the European Union and we validated the law through stakeholders and it was sent to the legislature and passed,” he said, while quoting Section 2.1.5 of the December 22, 2014 amended law that created the Commission.
States Section 2.1.5: “The Auditor General shall hold office for a term of seven years and shall not be eligible for reappointment.”
Section 2.2.3: “The Deputy Auditor General shall hold office for a term of five years and shall be eligible for reappointment for only one additional term.”
The three tenure officials at the GAC recently consented to President George Weah’s request and submitted to him their appointment letters.
The trio were appointed and commissioned in February 2014 more than a year before the Act governing the GAC was amended on March 6, 2015.
The move by President George Weah in ordering tenure officials to resubmit their letters of appointment has sparked concerns in some quarters about his intention, as some fear it might instigate a bridge of the law.
Officials at the GAC say the misinformation about the tenure of the three top officials of the agency is “quite disturbing” and has been distracting some of its staffs from work.
“We are a professional body but we are being distracted by all the noise out there concerning tenure and it is actually affecting how we do our work,” said Nanka.
“We are always focused on doing our job, but the situation has reached to a stage that we can no longer just sit by and allow other people define us, so we want to make clarity to the public about the legality of the GAC.”
In a statement released February 2, 2018, the GAC blamed the spread of the “unwarranted and unfounded allegations” as the doings of “some dishonest employees, (and) former staffers that were fired for acts incompatible with their employment status”.