By Mama A. Touray
Erstwhile director of finance at the Basse Area Council (BsAC) on Tuesday revealed before the ongoing Local Government Commission of Inquiry that BsAC budgeted D400,000 in 2021for cash power and water.
Ex-finance director Suso said the council spent D138,000 on water and electricity from the budget.
It was noted in an audit report that BsAC used to purchase cash power from third parties at a rate different from NAWEC’s.
“Buying cash power from NAWEC alone is not possible. Sometimes the internet will go down and the system goes down if there is no internet,” Suso stated.
He told the commission that Yaye Instant is closer to the councilthan NAWEC which, he said, is over a kilometer from the Council and that NAWEC goes down.
“We cannot bank on NAWEC because it will be difficult,” he added.
Suso disagreed with the auditors that NAWEC is closer to the council when, according to him, Yaye is just located oppositethe council.
He informed the commission that the BsAC hall is usually rented out and that when the cash power is finished, they can’t wait for 30 minutes while there is an institution closer.
“We will not be fair to those who rent the hall,” he stated.
At this point, lead counsel Yakarr Cox interjected and asked the witness how the council usually buys cash power.
“We usually buy it weekly, monthly and we sometimes have continuous meetings and we have four ACs as well,” Susoreplied.
“If you were planning in advance and monitoring, you will know in advance when to buy cash power,” Counsel Cox observed. “It is very right that if we were planning and monitoring, we should’ve been able to buy cash power in advance but If you have the plan and the fund is not available,it’s another problem,” he stated.
Suso further informed the commission that the council at times took cash power from Yaye on credit.
Deputy Lead Counsel Patrick Gomez asked Suso if these cash power transactions usually pass through the Contracts Committee and he responded: “No. Cash power does not pass through the Contracts Committee. Since it was approved in the budget, it does not have to pass through the contracts committee.”
“Did it pass through the procurement officer,” Gomez furtherasked. However, according to him, the procurement officer wasaware of the transactions as he was the one, who used to prepare the documents.
After referring him to the financial manual, the witness agreed that cash power is part of procurement, contradicting his earliertestimony that cash power does not need to pass through procurement and that the contracts committee does not need to approve it as it was already budgeted.
