Liberia: 'U.S.$1.8 Million Ebola Fund Misapplied At Liberian Red Cross' - Says Audit

When Ebola struck Liberia the country was facing an unknown enemy and the situation was beyond imagination especially when dead bodies were found on major streets and in homes with delay by burial teams to collect these bodies. Dead bodies are seen as one of the ways through which the virus spreads as according to scientists the virus is virulent in a dead victim.

The Liberian National Red Cross stepped up and took over the burial team, collecting dead bodies from communities and homes and dispatching them to the Cremation Center in Marshall outside Monrovia cutting one of the main chains of transmission of the deadly virus. For its efforts in bringing the outbreak under control the Liberian National Red Cross received huge international as well as local donations from individuals and institutions.

By the time the outbreak was put under control accounting for huge donations became a problem for many of the implementing partners and the Government of Liberia found itself in the limelight for breaking public procurement laws as well as floating prudent financial management processes. An Audit by the General Auditing Commission of Liberia on how Liberian government officials expended funding found misapplication of thousands of dollars for which there were no records to justify expenditures.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf responded to the audit report by saying the crisis in the country at the time warranted emergency decisions which could not go through the slow and rigorous procurement processes in the country. The Liberian National Red Cross which was hailed for its efforts in fighting the virus found its hard efforts coming under question when an international auditing firm Moore Stephens was contracted to conduct a risk management and audit of the Red Cross operations during the Ebola outbreak.

In a terms of reference drawn for the audit team, the audit was intended to amongst others verify the existence and eligibility of the procurement transactions, review the procurement file supporting documents including requisition, goods received Note, inventory movement, invoice, proof of payment and other procedures.

The audit was also meant to ascertain whether or not the procurement transactions undertaken were in compliance with procurement policies, procedures and guidelines and whether LNRCS or IFRC officials benefited from the transactions with the supplier. With the audit scope limited to the transactions between the LNRCS or IFRC and M2 Logistics or its affiliates, the auditors found that over US$1.8 million was misapplied by the local Red Cross office with the local office unable to provide records for the expenditures undertaken.