By: Martina George
The Prevention Department of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has presented a report on the systems and processes review of Budget Allocations and Utilization in the Water Sector to the Guma Valley Water Company on Tuesday 8th February, 2022 at the ACC Conference Room, 3 Gloucester Street, Freetown.
The review exercise is in tandem with the Commission’s primary mandate to prevent, investigate and prosecute corrupt offenders, and provide accurate information to the general public on the dangers of corruption in our society.
Welcoming staff of the Guma Valley Water Company and establishing the purpose of the meeting, Deputy Commissioner of the ACC, Augustine Foday Ngobie, stated that the ACC has a responsibility to check systems and processes and the work of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), which he said is one major functions of the Commission. “Examining the systems and processes and the routine activities of MDAs in executing their mandates and to proffer recommendations that are binding on them, is part of the work we do as a Commission,” he said.
Director of the Prevention Department, ACC, Rashid Turay, while giving an overview of the report, said that the essence of the review is to track resource utilization and ensure that MDAs make effective use of their allocated resources. He continued that the aim is to identify weaknesses in budget process that will create opportunity for corruption and proffer recommendations to address them. He added that the Guma Valley Water Company was called to such meeting in order to help improve service delivery.
Mr. Turay commended the company for its maximum cooperation during the review process by providing the enabling environment for the conduct of interviews and making sure that relevant documents were made easily accessible.
Deputy Director of the Prevention Department Martin P. George said in his brief statement that the Commission started the review on the entire water sector few months back and the exercise includes Guma Valley Water Company, SALWACO and the National Water Resources Management Agency. He maintained that separate reviews were done as a result of the nature of the initial report, which was very voluminous being that it incorporated the entire sector.
Monitoring and Compliance Specialist and Acting Head of the Monitoring and Compliance Unit, Ibrahim Sorie Kamara-Kay elucidated on the functions of the Unit in the process of assessing compliance level, noting that the recommendations will be monitored three months after the presentation of the report to ascertain compliance.
Presentation of the Report to the Management of the Guma Valley Water Company climaxed the event.
