Sierra Leone’s Finance Ministry says over a billion dollars of state funds could not be accounted for in a technical audit into government transactions covering a three-year period, between 2015 and 2018.

Local media reports say the country’s Finance Minister, Jusu Saffa used the term “stolen” for the unaccounted funds siphoned between 2015 and 2018.

The audit experts who were pooled from across the African continent looked into the affairs of eleven state run entities including the national telecoms outfit and the Ministry of Works and Public Assets.

Audit experts from Tanzania, Ghana and Kenya were invited to join their Sierra Leonean counterparts in the special assignment whose mandate was to investigate expenditures in the telecoms, roads, energy and security sectors.

President Julius Maada Bio has, since coming into office last year, promised to step up the fight against corruption. He also promised to retrieve stolen monies and strictly deal with any incidents that may arise in his administration.