By: Kemo Kanyi
Alieu Momar Njie and Sambujang Njie, the Chairman and Chief Electoral Officer of the Independent Electoral Commission, respectively will be held accountable, andwill face legal repercussions for authorizing “ineligible” payment of allowances to staff, according to the National Audit Office (NAO).
According to NAO, Section 42(8) of the 1997Constitution relates to the functional duties of The IEC as an independent office for conducting elections but it does not explicitly give the IEC the mandate to pay unapproved allowances not covered within the Electoral Service Code.
“Therefore, the issue remains unresolved,” stated NAO.
“The personnel responsible, i.e., the Chairman and the CEO for authorizing these ineligible allowances will be held accountable, and legal repercussions in the form of surcharge will be taken to ensure that these two individuals will completely desist from authorizing any ineligible expenditure in the future,” NAO said in areport seen by this reporter.
The auditors said the review of the payment voucher files for the period of audit revealed that the Commission paid allowances, amounting to GMD 15,891,502.53 and these allowances comprised three months gross salary incentives, nomination allowances, supervision and monitoring allowances, and the motivational token.
“Furthermore, a review of the Electoral Service Code 2018 revealed that the above-mentioned officials of the IEC paid allowances that were not covered within the code, meaning that the IEC should not have paid such allowances and therefore rendering the payment of these allowances as fraudulent,” NAO said. It added that the review of the payment voucher files also further revealed that a memo attached to these payment vouchers, relating to the payment of these allowances was written by the CEO and addressed to the chairman for all election periods covered in the audit, emphasizing that “as it has ever been the practice of the commission, after the successful conduct of such exercises, to pay such incentives or bonus to commission members and staff of the IEC as it will serve as a motivation for staff and make them feel like they are working in the best place they can be”.
The auditors revealed that the 2021 presidential election period coincided with staff party month at the end of the year.
“The CEO made mention of this in the memo above and suggested that a gross salary be given to all staff as part of the incentive instead of the postponement of the staff party, making it a total of three months gross salary paid as an incentive. This was approved and the trend, however, continued to pay three months’ gross salary incentive, nomination allowance, motivational token, support and supervision allowances to all commission members and staff for the subsequent election periods covered in our audit,” NAO reported.
NAO described the following payments as “illegitimate” allowances; Post 2021 Presidential Election Incentive to IEC Staff for Presidential Election 2021 was D3,604,602.75, bonus to IEC Staff for National Assembly Election 2022 D3,666,801.90, Councillorship and Mayoral/Chairperson Elections 2023 motivation token D5,447,672.88, Supervision, Monitoring and Support Staff Presidential Election 2021 Payment for December 2021 Presidential D643,550.00, Supervision, Monitoring and Support Staff National Assembly Election payment for 01st March to 14th April 2022 National Assembly Election 2022 equals D1,024,875.00, Supervision, Monitoring and Support Staff for Mayoral/Chairperson Election payment for 2023 amounts to D1,504,000.00. The amount involved, according to NAO, isD15,891,502.53.
NAO said there is a risk that the Commission is misappropriating or benefiting from public funds by simply using its authority to approve unscrupulous incentive or bonus payments that are
not statutory, which can lead to the commission wasting significant public resources.
“There is a risk of the future occurrence of such payments disrupting the normal operating activities of the commission by diverting resources away from productive or genuine
Activity,” it added.
The auditors recommended the management ensure that the Commission only pays allowances covered within the Electoral Service Code.
“There should be a clear and legitimate basis for the payment of allowances rather than being based on culture and tradition,” NAO further recommended.
