By Mama A. Touray
The Internal Auditor at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Cherno Amadou Sowe, revealed that from January 2020 to October 2022, Basse Area Council Finance Director and the people under him withdrew over D51,000,000 from the council accounts.
Continuing his testimony before the Local Government Commission of Inquiry at Djembe Hotel, Senegambia on Thursday, Director Sowe said: “From January 2020 to October 2022 Over D51,000,000 was withdrawn by the Finance Director and the people under him, (as) Basse was mainly doing cash base.”
Sowe told the commission that this is not how the finance department should operate, adding that, they write cheques in individual names and withdraw the money and come to use the money in council operations. And the audit teams, he said, were unable to conclude that the funds were used on council activities.
Breaking down the individuals’ withdrawal money within the council, Director Sowe said “The Finance Director is LaminSuso. Suso withdrew 4 Million Dalasi. One Million Seven Hundred. Ninety-Five, Four Hundred and Six Dalasi Twenty-Nine Bututs was withdrawn by Malafi Badjie, the Acting Finance Manager. The Cashier, Naba Krubally withdrew over Thirty-Five Million Dalasi. Ousainou Touray withdrew over Seven Hundred Thousand; Muhammed Jawaneh withdrew over One Million Three Hundred Thousand Dalasi. These monies the auditors cannot ascertain what happens to the funds.”
He explained that the audit team found it difficult to establish where the money was spent and the team found out that they were moving cash from one account to another. Adding that, they withdrew cash and decided to do the payment by themselves instead of issuing cheques.
“It is always difficult to establish where the money was spent. That was not possible because of the way the accounting was done. Payment should be supported by vouchers and chequesshould be issued. It was just a confusing financial situation. They deposit money and turn around to do a withdrawal.
“Concerning the D2,000,000, the auditors could not account D10,000 and the Cashier agreed to pay it back. We just know that the D2,000,000 was distributed among different parties but we cannot tell what the money was spent on. The council operates a cash base system. That is difficult to track. That is not how the accounting system should be operated. Good practice requires them to have a proper record.”
He said the CEO and Finance Director withdrew D26,890,180and that the council contracted loans without approval from the Ministry and the audit team was not able to establish where the money went.
“There was a drop in terms of their revenue projection. Council was always operating an overdraft. It was difficult to establish the true financial state of the council because of the way it was run. The council was in a deep financial hole,” Sowe told the commission.
Meanwhile, he revealed to the commission that the Finance Director registered a business (Alatentu Agency) and was paying council money into that business and that there was no evidence brought to the audit team that those monies were refunded to the council.
He said the audit team noted that there was no proper filing system and that the council does not have a lot of vehicles as Staff uses their personal vehicles and they bear the cost of maintaining their vehicles.
“Obviously, they need more than one vehicle to carry out council activities. Without having a fuel log, the council won’t have an account of the stock they purchase and how much is allocated to individuals. In the absence of that, they spend too much on fuel. The people use their vehicles with council fuel to run the affairs of the councils and to run their personal errands,” he said.
