By Mama A. Touray
Mansakonko Area Council Guest House Manager, MomodouSaidybah on Monday, 27 November 2023, appeared before the ongoing Local Government Commission of Inquiry at Djembe Hotel in Senegambia.
The witness after taking his oath was shown two of his statements which he confirmed and the Deputy Lead Counsel Patrick Gomez tendered the statements while the Chairperson admitted them into evidence.
Before serving as the Manager of the guest house, the witness said he was appointed as a rent clerk by the Mansakonko Area Council and some years later appointed as the acting Development Officer and that he was later confirmed as the Development Officer in 2006 after concluding his course at the Gambia Technical Training Institute.
Mr. Saidybah testified that in 2020, he was redeployed to oversee the conference center by the former CEO Pa SaitCeesay.
He told the commission that there are eighteen rooms in the guest house out of which six are VIP rooms and twelve are normal rooms, and has a conference hall and a restaurant.
Manager Saidybah added that the VIP rooms cost D700 per night and the other rooms D600 while the conference hall costs D2500 per day. He added that the restaurant used to cost D1000 per day.
He disclosed that the restaurant has an inner use as a mini hall and also a veranda that serves as the restaurant and that the Centre has nine employees.
On how payments are made, Saidybah said some people do cash payments while others do transfers.
He informed the commission that the main hall for the Centre is now rented for D3000 while the normal rooms cost D700, adding that the increment was necessitated by the increment in the cost of electricity by NAWEC.
The witness explained that when a customer makes a cash payment he issues the person a receipt and that he also issues receipts to those who do Bank transfers.
Momodou Saidybah was later informed by Counsel Gomez that the audit report indicated that the receipt books he was using were privately made and not the authorized receipt books from GPPC.
Counsel Gomez asked “Do you know the source of the receipts” and the witness responded “I don’t know,” adding “I know GTR receipts. I can confirm that the receipt books that I was given were not from GPPC. They were not GTRs. I don’t know the source but they were not GTR receipt books.”
When asked who gave him the receipt books, Saidybah said “The director of finance used to give me the receipt books”
Meanwhile, the witness admitted that the audit finding regarding the receipt books he was using was true and denied the allegation that he was giving money to senior employees of the Mansakonko Area Council.
The Counsel used the witness’ written and signed statements to confront him on his version of evidence. In the written statement, the witness stated that he used to give money he collected from the Conference Center to Seedy Sanneh – the Finance Manager. After reading his statement, the witness insisted that he never gave money to anyone in the council. He testified that he deposited the monies in the council’s account.
“Where are the receipts of the deposits you have made?” Counsel Gomez asked.
The witness answered that he did not have the receipts, but claimed that the Supersonics account would provide the details of the deposits he made.
The audit report indicated that there was an unaccounted D977,600. The report indicated that the collection was not traced from any of the Council’s accounts.
The witness said he deposited the monies he collected in the council’s account. He was given the bank statement of the Mansakonko Area Council to show the Commission the transaction, but the witness insisted that he deposited the money even though the bank statements indicate that he did not deposit the money.
He was asked about his cashbook, but he said he was not given a cashbook in 2020. He only got a cash book in 2021.
