By Binta Jaiteh
The National Assembly Standing Committee on Public Enterprise (PEC) has instructed and recommended both the National Water Electricity Company (NAWEC) and Social Security and Housing Finance Cooperation (SSHFC) submit their status implementation reports on the audit findings latest 31st March 2023.
The Committee also recommended that the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs should develop performance indicators and facilitate the signing of performance contracts with each Public Enterprise. The Board and Management of each Public Enterprise are to include an annual operational performance audit as part of the mandate of their internal audit committees/units and the Auditor General is to take the report of the internal audit committees on operational performance into consideration in their auditing exercises on all the Commercial Public Enterprises.
During the presentation of the standing committee’s report on Public Enterprises made by Lamin J Sanneh, chairperson on the performance audit reports said the audit findings revealed that NAWEC has not updated the deficiencies in the water master plan since its development in 2005 to reflect the current events. He said from 2017 to 2021, the institution did not have an approved strategic development that clearly outlined the water division’s strategic objectives and how they will meet the demand of the growing population.
According to the report, NAO further reported that NAWEC did not put in mechanisms to increase water production, and also NAWEC did not develop a water safety plan for its water network to provide an audience to the company and appropriate response and preventive measures for contamination.
The report also indicates that 44% of NAWEC elevated water tanks which are used as buffers and designed to provide gravity pressure in distributing water to the network were bypassed and there was no functioning geographic information system (GIS) for the period during which should have mapped out its entire water network.
Hon Ceesay said the auditors further reported that NAWEC has relied on the readings of its faulty meters in its water production system and distribution thus miscalculating the total amount of water produced and distributed. During a power outage, NAWEC failed to provide its water production facilities with functional stand-by generators to ensure continuous production.
Also, half of the existing NAWEC water infrastructure outlived its useful lifespan and requires replacement.
However, the committee recommended that Water strategy and operational planning for NAWEC should ensure the Water Master Plan reflect the current situation and should consider putting in place mechanisms to produce adequate water to meet the population demand. Water infrastructure and equipment: NAWEC should ensure water sources and their treatment plants are well protected/guided.
However, he went further in the report saying the National Provident Fund for the period 2018-21, only 32 claims (7%) were processed within the 16-day standard processing time. 323 claimants (67%) waited more than one month before they receive their benefits. 223 claimants (46%) waited more than two months to receive their benefits.
For the Federated Pension Scheme, he said, for the period 2018-21, only 30 claims (17%) were processed within the 16-day standard processing time. 51 claimants (29%) waited more than four months before they receive their gratuity benefits. The Social Security Regulations 2005 also required the Corporation to observe a cooling-off period for National Provident Fund claimants who go out of gainful employment before the statutory retirement age.
He explained that the cooling-off periods were either 3 or 6 months. In 2020, due to the outbreak of Covid-19 that put many members out of employment, SSHFC 26 amended this regulation to remove the cooling-off period for all claims. This is aimed at providing some level of social protection for those members whose livelihoods were affected by Covid-19.
It is noted that the Auditors analyzed the processing times of claims requiring the cooling-off period during 2018 and 2019. From their analysis, the SSHFC was not able to timely process 46 claims (30%) for which a cooling off period of 3 months was observed. For claims for which 6 month cooling off period is observed, SSHFC was not able to process 29% of the claims for the period. He reiterated
Meanwhile that the Auditors also noted that the most significant factor responsible for delays in claims processing is the contribution gaps, these are months for which no contribution is made for the employee by the employer. The Auditors further indicated that they were informed by the Benefits Unit that SSHFC only communicate these contribution gaps to employers during claims processing, instead of when the gaps arose. This is because that is the time the Corporation identified such gaps for individual employees. SSHFC had to wait until the employers settle these contribution gaps before the benefits are paid to the claimants.
According to the Auditors, out of a sample of 24 claims reviewed, they noted that SSHFC made errors in computing 21 of the claims (88%). Any GMD1 error made resulted in an incorrect benefit of the GMD1 plus the yearly interests based on compound interest payments. The review revealed that SSHFC made two types of errors in computing claimant benefits.
The Committee called on the National Assembly and the Ministry of Finance to collaborate to publish all its adopted reports on performance or operational audit findings on the commercial SOEs to the public.