By Mama A. Touray and Ismaila Manjang
Bakary Trawally, Director of Area Councils and Municipalities has testified that audit process is always consultative and he made disclosure at the ongoing Local Government Commission of inquiry on Thursday.
In his testimony, he said audit process is always consultative, the councils or institutions they are auditing are always part of them from the beginning to the end and they are given all the opportunity to provide any explanation or documentation before concluding the audit.
He further testified that they always set a team and that team is formed based on the revenue, nature and the risk involve within a particular council or municipality.
He also told the Commission that an engagement letter is sent to the councils and the engagement letter describes how the audit will be done, the documents they need, the time and the day of the entrance meeting amongst other things.
“We do not start the audit when they don’t sign the engagement letter to say we have acknowledged and we are ready to receive your team,” he said.
Trawally told the Commission that the audit process starts with planning, “we have planning in all units at the National Audit office and there are five units at the NAO that is the Ministries, Municipalities and Area Councils, development and projects, extraneous unit (sub vented institutions) and performance unit (value for money)”.
He added that they plan how to conduct audit in all institutions, as the Auditor General has the mandate to audit all public fund “but practically it is not possible for the auditor general to audit all these institution in a year and report,” he said.
“In planning we use risk base approach, in this we consider the budget allocation or how much revenue is Kanifing Municipal Council is generating, we make sure we plan in accordance with the revenue or budget they are receiving and the risk, we look at the previous year the negative findings and the public perceptions, “he explains.
He added they also consider if there is a public outcry about a particular Area Council they will know the risk for that council is high, and make sure they prioritize them in their planning.