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Sierra Leone failed to properly account for Ebola funds: auditor
Health workers push a wheeled stretcher holding a newly admitted Ebola patient in to the Save the Children Kerry town Ebola treatment centre outside Freetown, Sierra Leone, December 22, 2014. PHOTO BY REUTERS/Baz Ratner
14/02/2015
FREETOWN (Reuters) - Sierra Leone failed to fully account for nearly a third of the $20 million earmarked for fighting Ebola during six months last year, the national auditor said on Friday, suggesting bad governance may have hampered the battle against the epidemic.
The report by Sierra Leone's Auditor General looked at 84 billion leones ($19.5 million) the government set aside for fighting the hemorrhagic fever from the start of the outbreak last May until October.
Most of the money came from tax revenues and donations by domestic institutions and individuals. The report did not consider funds channelled through U.N. agencies or international non-governmental organisations.
The funds were mostly disbursed on personal protective equipment, medical supplies, consumables and bonus payments to healthcare workers, the report said.
But it found that more than 14 billion leones from the government's emergency health response account had no supporting documents to substantiate how they were spent. A further 11 billion leones spent from the same account were missing receipts and invoices.
"Monies that have been set aside for the purpose of combating the Ebola outbreak may have been used for unintended purposes, thereby slowing the government's response to eradicate the virus," the report said.
"There continue to be lapses in the financial management system in Sierra Leone and these have ultimately resulted in the loss of funds and a reduction in the quality of service delivery in the health sector."
More than 10,000 Ebola cases have been reported in Sierra Leone since May, making it the hardest hit country in what is the worst recorded outbreak of the disease.
The epidemic has been concentrated in West Africa and killed 9,253 people out of 22,999 known cases since December 2013, according to World Health Organizationfigures.
Earlier this week, Sierra Leone said it had cleaned up a list thought to contain thousands of "ghostworkers" on its Ebola staff and would prosecute those who sought to swindle money from the government, tackling a problem that has dogged its fight against the epidemic.
A government spokesman was not immediately available to comment on the report.
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