By Mama A. Touray
Former director of finance at the Basse Area Council(BsAC), Lamin Suso, on Tuesday, asked the Local Government Commission of Inquiry to discard the over 100 vouchers he tendered to the commission to justify personal withdrawals he made from BsAC accounts.
Suso told the commission that the vouchers should be discarded as they were all defective.
“The vouchers do not comply with rules and regulations as contained in the financial manual,” he explained to the commission.
After perusing the vouchers, the commission noticed some serious defects, rendering them worthless. Some of the defects noticed were that the signatures of the CEO and those who prepared the vouchers were missing. The commission also noticed that the overwhelming majority of the vouchers were not accompanied by invoices, or receipts of payments, and the procurement officer did not sign them. It was also noticed that Lamin Suso, as the director of finance, singlehandedlyprepared a good number of the vouchers and signed them.
Suso informed the commission that he prepared the vouchers unauthorized, admitting that he was not supposed to do so.
He also informed the commission that some of the vouchers were prepared by MomodouLamin Keru but his signature and name were not on the vouchers. He further testified that some of the vouchers were prepared by NdabahKrubally but his name and signature were missing from them.
Chairperson Jainaba Bah asked Suso why the columns in the vouchers were not completely filled and why essential information wasmissing.
“You did that to avoid accountability because if you fill the vouchers and input the information, someone can trace it and know what happened,”Chairperson Bah put to him.
“Yes,” Suso agreed.