By: Fatou Krubally
Alagie I. Sowe, a former revenue collector at the Banjul City Council (BCC), has denied allegations of fraud and suppression of funds following his suspension in September 2018.
The claims, which involve missing funds totaling over 850,000 dalasis, sparked a heated debate over the transparency of the auditing process and the handling of financial discrepancies.
Sowe was accused of failing to deposit D172,000 dalasis into the bank, with an additional 678,540 dalasis questioned in national audit reports for 2017 and 2018.
Testifying before the Local Government Commission of Inquiry, Sowe explained that the discrepancies stemmed from audit queries, not fraudulent activity.
According to him, audits were conducted in six-month intervals, and discrepancies often arose due to posting errors in the reports.
He insisted that after each audit, a draft report was sent to him for verification, and he had always provided necessary documents, including deposit slips and receipts. However, Sowe claimed that the final audit report was never shared with him.
“I went to the audit office multiple times to resolve the issue, but I was unsuccessful. No one came to show me the final report,” Sowe said.
Despite these claims, management took no action until the suspension letter arrived in September 2018. At the time, Musa Batchilly was the CEO.
According to Sowe, the suspension followed a lack of proper communication regarding the audit’s final findings.
The former revenue collector is expected to return to commission to testify further with the hope of clearing his name and proving the discrepancies were as a result of an incomplete auditing process.
The case remains under investigation, with the accused maintaining his innocence. The outcome will likely shed light on the flaws in the audit procedures and whether Sowe was unfairly targeted or if fraudulent activities occurred within the department.