By: Musa S. Sheriff
The Forensic Audit of Social Security Housing and Finance Corporation (SSHFC) in the eight years to December 31, 2017, revealed that by lack of any supporting documentation or information in respect of the mapping of the Trial Balances for the respective funds to the signed SSHFC Financial Statements for the years ending December 31, 2014 to December 31, 2017.
Seven State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) of the government The Gambia special audited report by Ernst & Young LLP revealed that EY auditors were unable to reconcile the amounts as per the Trial Balances for the respective funds to the signed SSHFC Financial Statements for the years ending December 31, 2014 to December 31, 2017.
According the report the auditors experienced delays with obtaining the payroll summaries and loan schedules in respect of the SSHFC employees (i.e., current and former), for the years 2010 to 2017, noting that as a result, they were unable to reconcile the total amount for the staff costs to the SSHFC Consolidated Revenue Account for the year ending December 31, 2017.
“With evidence of incomplete recordkeeping and inadequate filing of supporting documentation and information, the auditors conclude that this could result in inter alia, possible non-compliance with Section 28(2) and Section 62 of the SSHFC Act, amongst others.
Section 30 of the SSHFC Act requires SSHFC to conduct periodic actuarial valuations at least every three years. The last actuarial valuation conducted in respect of the FPS and IICF was for the year ending December 31, 2014,” the report stated.
The report pointed out that it was recommended that SSHFC performs a valuation of the FPS and IICF as required under the terms of Section 30 of the SSHFC Act, adding that this will assist the SSHFC management to determine the cash flow position of SSHFC going forward and whether the obligations to members would be fulfilled based on the current investment portfolio and profits generated from activities undertaken.
“There appears to be various investments related to Executive Directives issued by the Office of the President. The auditors were not provided with any supporting documentation or information for various investment properties.
For example: they were unable to obtain a title deed to confirm the ownership of the land and buildings related to Ocean Bay Hotel (GMD 520m, USD 11m) and Resort and Sun Beach Hotel (GMD 212m, USD 4.4m) and unable to obtain a title deed as evidence that SSHFC owns the property where the Kanifing School (GMD 9m, USD 191,000) and the Kanifing Market (GMD 3m, USD 65,000) is located; and also were unable to determine whether 300 plots of land (i.e., Lamin Makumbaya Land) were effectively acquired by SSHFC (GMD 30m, USD 625,000),” the Auditors revealed.
The auditors noted that the SSHFC management was unable to confirm whether 13 bank account numbers with an estimate value of GMD 41m (USD 858,00) that are listed as per the bank confirmations are bank accounts held by SSHFC with balances ranging from GMD 0 to GMD 30 (USD 0 to USD 625,00).
