By Arret Jatta
The Local Government Commission of Inquiry (LGCI), on Thursday, 10 October, detected that Witness Ndey Kewe Jeng, the License Collector at Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC), was not present for auditing in the year 2022 from January to December.
“2022 January to December there is no record of you being present at the audit department for audit, a month is chosen out of that whole year and you were not present, do you have any explanation for this,” deputy lead counsel SunkaryCamara asked the witness.
“I went for audit but I don’t know what month they are talking about, But I do go for audit,” Ms Jeng responded.
“Now I will give you the 2022 internal audit report, but before I give you that, I want you to let us know if there was any instance you were on leave, sick, or anything like that,” Counsel Camara demands to know that from the witness.
The witness replied, “I might be because in 2022 I had a baby”.
“And if you were on confinement leave your manager should know about that and they will inform the admin about it and it will be noted in the audit report am I right,” the deputy lead counsel put it to her.
“Yes you are right,” Ms Jeng said.
Counsel Camara further put it to her that, if it is a confinement, it will be indicated that it is a confinement and the witness said, “That is true”.
“Now in this audit report, nothing like that is indicated, but the good thing for you is that your manager made an excuse for you that you were on leave, were you on leave,” Deputy Lead Counsel asked continuously.
“Yes in 2022 I was on leave,” the witness replied.
When asked what leave was she on, she said she was on confinement and annual leaves.
“Okay you can now take a look at the audit report, that’s not indicated it just says on leave and if you are on confinement leave, it should indicate it but it just says on leave, because there are several leaves you know, but this leave is not specific. It either that’s what you told your boss or is it that your boss was the one making up an excuse for you because the leave is not even specific,” Counsel Camara put it to the witness.
She however told her to provide a leave letter if she was really on leave.
The witness also responded by saying “Okay I will bring the leave letter, my boss did not make up an excuse for me I was really on leave”.
