By Mohamed Konneh
The Budget Advocacy Network (BAN) on Tuesday, 27th October 2026, unveil its latest accountability brief titled “Follow the Unrecovered Public Money.
“The brief is develop under the project title, Promoting Accountability and Citizens Engagement (PACE) with support from Christian Aid.
According to the Media Advisory issued by BAN, the new brief critically examines Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report on the 2023 Auditor-General’s Report, with a sharp focus on unresolved revenue leakages that continue to deprive the state of much-needed resources.
The brief highlights 34 unresolved or partly resolved revenue issues flagged by the Auditor-General and reviewed by the PAC. These include taxes withheld by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) but not remitted to the National Revenue Authority (NRA), uncollected fees, rents and mining leases, and revenue collected but not traced to the Consolidated Fund.
While the PAC was able to recover NLe 12.0 million during its review process, BAN notes that hundreds of millions of Leones remain outstanding and owed to the public purse.
BAN National Coordinator, Abu Bakarr Kamara says the briefing of media go beyond the numbers to present key findings in accessible language, highlight specific cases that require sustained media and citizen follow-up, and outline concrete steps to hold institutions accountable for implementing PAC’s directives.
The 2023 Auditor-General’s Report had raised serious concerns about revenue management across MDAs, pointing to weak internal controls, non-compliance with tax laws, and failure to enforce collection of government dues. The PAC hearings, which followed, summoned heads of MDAs to account for the audit queries, leading to some recoveries but leaving a large chunk of the issues unresolved.
Kamara said BAN is a coalition of civil society organizations working on budget transparency and accountability, and that the purpose of the “Follow the Unrecovered Public Money” brief is to make audit reports actionable for ordinary citizens and journalists.
“Audit reports should not end on the shelf. When Parliament says money is unrecovered, citizens must ask: where is the money?” the BAN Coordinator said ahead of the briefing.
He said the media plays a crucial role in tracking audit recommendations and pressuring MDAs to comply. Under the PACE project, BAN has been producing simplified briefs on the Auditor-General’s Reports and PAC Reports to promote public understanding and demand for accountability.
There are MDAs with the highest unresolved revenue issues and propose and that a follow-up tracker that is key for citizens and the media that can be used to monitor whether institutions comply with PAC orders to pay back the money.
BAN is now calling for a renewed stronger enforcement powers for the PAC and Auditor-General, including sanctions for MDAs that fail to implement audit recommendations.
