By Mama A. Touray
The Head of Business Banking at the Standard Chartered Bank, Chief Executive Officer at Superzonic Micro Finance, official of Access Bank, and others, yesterday, Wednesday, testified before the ongoing Local Government Commission of Inquiry, at Djembe Hotel, Senegambia on the bank statements of the councils.
Testifying before the Commission, Abdoulie Sanneh, Head of Business Banking at the Standard Chartered Bank told the Commission that they were given a list of council names to check whether they have an account with them and they realized that it is only one account that is active at the moment which is for Basse Area Council and that Banjul City Council used to have an account with them but closed in 2020.
Sanneh added that he was able to get statements of account of Basse Area Council and Banjul City Council from 2018 to 2020, adding that the rest of the councils – Kuntaur, Mansakonko, Janjanbureh have accounts with them but were closed way before 2017.
He presented a statement of account of the Banjul City Council who had closed their account with the bank in 2020 saying the “start date is from 7th December 2016 and ended 18th December 2020 and it was a current account. For Basse Area Council it is a dormant account and has no transaction for twelve months. The statement is from the 30th of December 2017 to date. It’s a debit account with D6000, and it’s a current account”.
The statement of account for Banjul dated 7th of December 2016, to 6th of January 2017, Basse Area Council account with Standard Chartered Bank from 30th December 2017 to 30th March 2023, was tendered by Counsel Yakarr Cox and admitted in evidence by Chairperson Jainaba Bah Sambou.
Njundu Fatty, the Chief Executive Officer of the Superzonic Micro Finance Bank also testified at the Commission on the account the area councils have with them.
He told the Commission that he has the bank statements of Brikama Area Council, Basse Area Council, and Mansakonko Area Council as they are the only Local Government Authorities that have bank accounts with them. “I have the bank statement for Mansakonko Area Council from December 2020, up to date, I also have the bank statement of Brikama Area Council covering the period June 2021 when the account was opened up to date. And I also have the bank statement of Basse Area Council from May 2021 to date”.
He continued: “The account for BAC was open with two thousand five hundred dalasis, the closing balance of three hundred and seventy thousand seven hundred and fifty-three dalasi as of 18th of May 2023. That of Mansakonko, the account was open December 2020, with six thousand two hundred dalasis, and the closing balance as of 31st May 2023 is one hundred and thirty dalasis.”
He also told the Commission that the Basse Area Council account was opened in May 2021, with ten thousand dalasis, with a closing balance of eighteen thousand five hundred and fifty dalasis.
The bank statement for Brikama Area Council, Basse Area Council, and Mansakonko was tendered by Counsel Yakarr Cox and admitted in evidence by Chairperson Jainaba Bah Sambou.
Meanwhile, Lamin S Ceesay of Access Bank also testified that they have an account with two local councils and the Brikama Area Council and Kerewan Area Council.
He stated that Brikama Area Council has two accounts with the bank which are current accounts, and Kerewan Area Council Area has one bank account with them, as well.
“The Brikama Area Council collection account is from 1st May 2018 to 31st December 2023, with the opening balance of zero dalasis and closing balance of zero and there were two movements, one a fund transfer of one hundred and fourteen thousand ninety-nine point nine, which was moved to their main account one hundred and fourteen thousand ninety-seven point nine.”
He said the main account as at the period request by the Commission was negative three hundred and sixty-eight, three thousand six hundred and eighty point seven eight, and closing balance of two hundred and sixty-seven thousand two hundred and twenty-two point one three.
He told the commission that BAC has no investment account with them but has an overdraft account.
The Kerewan Area Council balance as of the period is seventeen thousand four hundred and forty-six point eight and a closing balance of sixteen thousand five hundred and sixty-four point zero two.
The bank statement for Brikama area council and Kerewan Area Council were tendered by Counsel Cox and admitted in evidence by chairperson Jainaba Bah Sambou.
