Deputy Speaker Fallah, Others ‘Stalling’ House Audit

Well-placed sources within in the House of Representatives on Capitol Hill, Monrovia have hinted the Independent Authoritative Heritage Newspaper that Deputy Speaker Thomas P. Fallah and others are stalling the audit of the House of Representatives by the General Auditing Commission(GAC).
It can be recalled that sometimes ago, the House of Representatives approved an audit by the GAC in a move to enhance accountability and transparency. This decision, led by Cllr. J. Fonati Koffa’s leadership, marks the first audit of the House in over 67 years since the construction of the Capitol Building, the seat of the Liberian Legislature.
The audit aims to ensure compliance with legislative directives and policies, enabling the government’s First Branch to control public funds as mandated by the law, starting from the 55th Legislature on January 15, 2024.
In response to the House’s request for an audit in February, Auditor General Garswa Jackson Sr. appeared before the House Session in March, leading to the issuance of a Letter of Engagement. The GAC’s objectives for the audit encompass evaluating the House’s financial management systems and processes for alignment with legislative decisions, laws, and established guidelines.
The objectives of the review are: “To provide the intended user(s) with information on whether the House of Representatives Financial Management System and Processes are adequately designed and consistent with legislative decisions, laws, legislative acts, policies, established codes, and agreed upon terms; To gather sufficient and appropriate evidence whether the House of Representatives Financial Management System and Processes are adequately designed and in line with relevant legislative decisions, laws, legislative acts, policies, established codes and agreed upon terms,” AG Jackson said.
The AG highlighted a commitment to reporting findings following the GAC Act of 2014, ensuring transparency to the Legislature.
“To report in terms of the GAC reporting requirements as spelled out in part four (4) of the GAC Act of 2014, the findings to the National Legislature. The review will be conducted to issue a limited assurance report on the Financial Management System and Processes of the House of Representatives.”
The GAC will undertake a System Review focusing on various areas such as administration, financial management, procurement practices, and asset management within the House of Representatives.
Accordingly, the GAC will undertake a System Review of the Financial Management System and processes of the House of Representatives. The system review will be undertaken under the mandate of the Auditor General (AG) as provided for in Section 2.1.3 of the GAC Act of 2014.

“This System Review is a limited assurance engagement rendered to assess the Financial Management System and Processes of the House of Representatives to provide recommendations for improvement, thereby setting the stage for an audit,” AG Jackson pointed out.

The system review, which covers the current financial management system and processes in place at the House of Representatives, will focus on, but not be limited, to the following areas: Administration, including personnel management; maintenance, and payroll; Financial management, including accounting policy, budgeting, financial accounting, and reporting; Procurement practices; Liabilities management; Receivables management; Internal control and systems, including internal audit; Asset management, including effective and reliable assets, register system; Banking transactions, including reconciliations and record keeping.
The audit will adhere to international audit standards and regulatory frameworks, aiming to provide recommendations for system enhancements and provide a foundation for future comprehensive audits.
The approach to be used for our system review engagement is derived from the International Standards for Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAI) 100 and International Standard on Assurance Engagements ISAE 3000 (Revised), the GAC said. Other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information and from legislative decisions, laws, legislative acts, policies, and established codes such as the PFM Act and Regulations, PCC Act and Regulations, Civil Service Standing Order, Decent Work Act – 2015, Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO), Control Objectives for Information and Related Technologies (COBIT 2019), and Policies & Procedures identified as criteria relevant to evaluation.
Our sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, further hinted that since the issuance of the Letter of Engagement to the House Leadership, the GAC is yet to commence the audit.
‘’When the GAC issued its Letter of Engagement to the House, Speaker Koffa was out of the country, and therefore, it was the Deputy Speaker Fallah who received it. Since the receipt of the Letter of Engagement, the House has not given the GAC auditors the greenlight to commence the audit,’’ one of the Legislative Sources, said.
When asked why Deputy Speaker Fallah and others are stalling the audit, the source attributed it to their alleged involvement in corruption when they served the House Committee On Ways, Means and Finance during the previous governments.
Former Bong County Representative now Senator Prince K. Moye served as Chairman On the Ways, Means and Finance during the regime of former President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, while Deputy Speaker Fallah also served as Chairman of the Committee during the regime of former President George Manneh Weah and current Liberian Vice President Jeremiah Kpan Koung served as Co-Chair on the Committee.
There are reports that these three officials were allegedly involved in corruption while serving at this lucrative House Committee and they are afraid that they could be hooked for corruption in the pending GAC audit for which the process is being stalled.

Some pundits have described the action of Deputy Speaker Fallah and others to stall the process of the audit of the House by the GAC as undemocratic and a bad precedent.
According to the pundits, this has the propensity to undermine the credibility of the House of Representatives under the leadership of House Speaker Koff who had bragged that the House was opened for audit to ensure transparency and accountability.
Meanwhile, while the House Audit is being stalled, this paper gathered that the GAC is wrapping up with the audits of the Liberian Senate, the Judiciary, the Minister of State for Presidential Affairs and others and that the GAC is expected to submit the findings of these audit reports to the Liberian Legislature by the end of this month for review and subsequent action.