BAN Calls On Parliament to Dismiss Tribunal Report
…Lacks Evidentiary Deficiencies
By Mohamed Konneh
The Budget of Advocacy Network and its partners on Tuesday 29th October 2024 called on the Sierra Leone parliament to dismiss the tribunal report on suspended Auditor General and her Deputy Tamba Momoh. The call came during a press briefing organized by BAN and partners after taking a look at the tribunal report since it was submitted to President Julius Maada Bio.
Making the call, the BAN Coordinator, Abu Bakarr Kamara said consequent to the glaring legal procedural and evidentiary deficiencies in the tribunal’s work as well as the obvious discrepancies and gaps in the report, parliament should either dismiss the tribunal recommendations or send the report back to the attorney general and minister of Justice for clarifications and a full annex of the evidence presented to the tribunal.
Mr. Kamara noted that members of parliament should wait to deliberate on the recommendations until they have all the informations in respect of Mrs. Lara Taylor Pearce.
In this vein also, BAN also called on the judiciary regarding the matter filed in the Supreme Court by Mrs. Lara Taylor Pearce that it should be heard without further delay.
He said if the constitutional review committee chooses to consider the tribunal’s recommendation that it review section 119(9) of the 1991 constitution of Sierra Leone to provide a mechanism for monitoring a and discipline the Auditor General, the CRC should ensure that the independence of the Auditor General remains sacrosanct and is not compromised.
“Any monitoring or disciplinary measures included in a proposed constitutional amendment should remain limited to clarifying current procedures or closing any existing gaps. The Analysis of Auditor-General Tribunal report, highlights key cracks including bias and concerns on evidentiary standards,” Mr. Kamara said.
The report by the Budget of Advocacy Network and partners provides a comprehensive analysis of the Auditor General, Lara Taylor Pearce and her Deputy Tamba Momoh. The analysis provides clarity on the issues raised by the tribunal’s findings thereby contributing to public discourse.
On ethical standards the BAN Report noted that the tribunal conclusion on breached of ethical standards conflicts two issues, as was explain by ILRAH representative.
She said the tribunal conclusion that the respondents breached ethical standards by seeking third party confirmation during the audit without the consent of the office of the President is concerning.
This she said third party confirmation of account balances and third-party confirmations of documents authenticity, mistakenly applying the former to the compliance audit of the president.
“The act provides clear provisions that were neither inconsistent with nor overridden by the constitution. Therefore, the tribunal’s approach, misdirected the legal framework governing Mr. Momoh’s position thereby undermining the procedural integrity of the investigation.
The BAN report is coming at a time when other professional bodies including ICASL have vindicated both Lara Taylor Perce and her Deputy Tamba Momoh. In this vein BAN is calling on parliament to dismiss the report as the tribunal report lacks merit.
The report by BAN is a product of SLAJ, Citizens Barray, the 50/50 group and ILRAJ, who all made input into the discuss.
The Auditor General and her Deputy were suspended from office in 2021. On 11th November 2021, one month before the planned releases of the annual auditor General’s report which contained audit observances in relation to the office of the president for the financial year 2020, then got suspended.
The reasons for their suspension were not disclosed to Lara Taylor Pearce and Mr. Momoh, nor the public, prompting questions and concerns from national and international auditing bodies, civil society, the media and the general public.
On 17th November 2021 invoking section 137(5)(a) of the 1991 constitution of Sierra Leone the government announced the formation of the a three-member tribunal to investigate the suspended Auditor General and her Deputy.
A tribunal was set up and investigation ran from March 17th 2022 to 19th December 2023. The tribunal submitted it report to President Julius Maada Bio on June 12th 2024. The report has now been laid in parliament awaiting parliamentary debate.
