By Binta Jaiteh
The Gambia College has been rescheduled to represent its annual activity reports and audited financial statements for 2019 and 2020 by the Finance and Public Accounts Committee (FPAC) due to incomplete reports.
Earlier, during an engagement with the committee, Lamin Camara, the Procurement Officer at Gambia College informed the committee that the council has submitted their complete reports to the National Assembly.
However, the Clerk of the Committee, Lamin E Manneh, said he didn’t confirm the number of copies sent and was also not aware of who received the copies.
He explained that the box containing the copies of the council was not sealed to that it would be difficult to confirm if the reports were complete or not, but assured to liaise with Parliament’s Records Office to find out.
Kebba Lang Fofana, a member of the committee asked the chairperson of the committee to allow the council to present their reports since the matter is internal, while encouraging the committee to find out from the records office about the sent reports.
According Abubacarr Jallow, the Gambia College’s Principal, the 2021 and 2022 auditing is complete and they are now working on the management response once that is done the 2023 will start.
He quickly disclosed that they responded to the audit queries but the auditors rejected their reply.
Auditor Paul Gaye responded that the college provided them with the responses of 2021 and 2022 management letters but the reports were scanty and incomplete, more so, the points that were raised by the auditors were not properly addressed.
“We have to send them back so that they can respond to the queries properly” he disclosed
Dr Alieu Seghore Chairman said on their last engagement with the committee an outstanding voucher amounting to over D30 million was raised and the council took it very seriously and decided to take the matter up to regularize the issue.
Working with the auditors, he said they discovered that their director of finance was not qualified so the council decided to redeploy him and appoint a suitable finance director.
He informed the committee that, the new director of Finance is responding to the queries.
However, the committee re-rescheduled the council to appear today to present their 2019 and 2020 reports while the committee awaits the 2021, 2022, and 2023 reports.