Procurement Irregularities At SLCB: *Imported Letterheads- NLe368,000 *Switch & Card Management System- US$2,832,739.79 *Supply Of 650 KVA Generator- NLe3,172,194.50

By Aruna Momoh Kargbo

Series of procurement activities undertaken by the government indigenous bank, Sierra Leone Commercial Bank (SLCB) have been questioned due to flawed procurement process.
This was captured by the protector of the Sierra Leone public purse, Audit Service Sierra Leone (ASSL) in their recently published report citing what they (ASSL) observed at the time of auditing.
The report maintained that from a review of documents, copy of the no-objection obtained from NPPA for the use of sole sourcing as the approved sourcing method was not sighted during the review.
That the bidding document issued to the most responsive bidder for the supply of the imported letterheads was not sighted.
That the evaluation report and procurement committee minutes for the award of contract were not sighted.
The audit stated that the bidding document issued to the bidder for the procurement and implementation of the Switch & Card Management Systems and Mobile Application Services with the contract sum of US$2,832,739.79 was not sighted by auditors.
That bidding document issued to and submitted by the sole bidder for the procurement and supply of 650 KVA Generator at the contract cost of NLe3,172,194.50 (US$134,987) was not sighted.