March 1, 2019
By Dusuba Koroma
The Former Director of Financial Resources, at the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MOHS), Festus Amara Kuyembeh, has admitted before Justice Biobele that over 25 billion Leones has not been accounted for, as recorded in the Auditor General’s report for 2014 and 2015 respectively.
He told the Commission that during his tenure at MOHS, his responsibilities were to supervise and coordinate the preparation of draft, estimate plan and submitting them at the required time, ensure that authorized estimate of expenditures were not exceeded, and supervising a prompt collection of all revenues to the ministry’s account.
The lead State Counsel, Lawyer Mason, produced documents that were compiled by the auditor general between May and October 2014, from which the witness read out portions he admitted were the actual issues that the ministry took part in.
He further admitted that he did process some of the documents of those payments based on the directives of the then Minister of Health, Madam Miatta Kargbo and Permanent Secretary, Sadiq Kapuwa.
Kuyembeh stated that the Ebola Operating Centre (EOC) was setup to manage the Ebola crisis at that time.
When asked as to how funds were managed then at the Ministry in 2014, Kuyembeh said the EOC met and discussed that payment should be made, hence sent the recommendation to the minister for approval, who in turn forwarded it to the Permanent Secretary and the Senior Accountant.