| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Momodou |
Posted - 24 Aug 2022 : 15:40:34
AUDIT REPORT SAYS GOV’T LOST OVER D99M DUE TO INCORRECT USE OF FOREIGN EXCHANGE
The Standard: AUGUST 24, 2022
By Omar Bah
https://standard.gm/audit-report-says-govt-lost-over-d99m-due-to-incorrect-use-of-foreign-exchange/
A report from the National Audit Office on the 2018 government financial statement has revealed that the government’s incorrect use of exchange rates has resulted in a loss of D99,127,027.02 during the conversion of the Special Project Dollar account.
According to the auditors, they also noted balances totalling D1,241,041,349.67 in transit accounts at the end of the financial year.
“Transit accounts are temporary accounts that are supposed to be nil at the end of the year and the presence of monies there at the end of the financial year is an indication of a weak system control and can lead to various misstatements in the financial statements,” the report added.
According to the report, grants disbursements amounting to D332,534,430.00 disbursed directly to various sectors from multilateral and bilateral institutions were not disclosed in the 2018 government financial statements and even after auditors requested records of the grants disbursed during the year from the Ministry of Finance on several occasions, these records remained outstanding.
The report further disclosed that the government accumulated arrears of D554,576,012.90 with a commercial bank but these arrears were not disclosed in the 2018 financial statements and also, government’s liabilities of D40,524,000 was omitted from the 2018 financial statements which, the report added, can lead to understatement of government’s obligations and thus may mislead the readers of the financial statements.
According to the report, there was an understatement of D245,018,298.84 for the public debt balance included in the Financial Statements.
Loss of public funds
Also, according to the report, there were misappropriations of government funds from previous financial years resulting in losses of public monies amounting to D17,097,387.60 that were not fully recovered as at 31 December 2018.
This included Gambia Immigration Department (sea port): visa fee amounting to D1,302,000 which was received by the cashier but only D700,000 was paid to the government leaving a balance of D602,000, Brikama Health Centre- unaccounted revenue collections of D402,674.00, Brikama sub-treasury- unaccounted revenue collections of D6,592,172.50, Kerewan sub-treasury-unaccounted cash of D2,136,327.61, Janjanbureh sub- treasury- unaccounted cash of D521,000.00, directorate of National Treasury; un-authorised withdrawal of public funds from the Old TMA of D4,064,363.15, Department of Forestry, Parks and Wildlife- unauthorised transactions in a Project Account of D839,500.00, cash withdrawals not accounted for by the finance attaché at the Gambian mission in Guinea Bissau amounting to D390,000.32 and there was a reported fraud by the finance attaché at the mission in Paris on 14 February 2014 of €27,500 (D1,593,50.00).
The report further highlighted that from auditors testing of samples of payments made by the Government in 2018, they found out that D77,200,284 could not be confirmed as the payment vouchers were not presented for audit.
The report added that total payments amounting to D85,000,000 were made without adequate supporting documents and further expenditure of D306,877 incurred on travel expenses had no documentation.
Imprest
According to the auditors, they identified an imprest of D15,286,063.90 that was not retired and remained outstanding as at 31 December 2018.
“This included a cash payment of D180,000.00 that could not be supported with documentation. Unconfirmed balances of D5,389,778,820 in respect of the statement of net-worth of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs). These balances could not be established as the audited financial statements of these SOEs were not presented during the audit,” the report added.
According to the report, receipts for non-tax revenue amounting D10,794,500 were not supported with deposit slips.
The report further revealed that the minutes for the loan negotiation from the Islamic Development Bank with a loan amount of Islamic Dinars (ID) 1,800,000.00 and European Investment Bank with a loan amount of €57,000,000.00 were not presented during the audit. “Missing documentation casts doubts in the internal controls and can lead to fraud and mismanagement of funds,” the report added.
It also revealed that D23,675,354.00 was spent on procurement of eleven (11) vehicles of which initial payment of D14,761,004 was made in 2017 and final payment was made in 2018 but the delivery of Nine vehicles were made to the Office of the President before the contract for the procurement was signed in December 2017.
“As such, value for money may be compromised when due procurement processes are not followed (such retrospective approval of contracts and procurement has been a reoccurring issue in previous audit reports),” the auditors said.
The report added that a contract of D2,998,800.00 was awarded to a supplier who registered with GPPA for the supply of goods and not the delivery of service to rehabilitate the Independence Stadium for the celebration of the 2018 Independence Anniversary of the Gambia.
This, the report added, is serious breach of the GPPA Act and the Regulations and defeats the spirit of sound procurement practices as the said supplier might not have the expertise to carry out such services.
According to the report, there was no evidence of reconciliation performed between the government and a supplier to establish the amount of D47,524,850.00 claimed to be owed to the supplier of motor vehicles procured for cabinet ministers.
“In the absence of reconciliation, it will be difficult to establish the amount owed. There is a risk that the supplier could be overpaid and lead to losses of public money,” the auditors noted.
The report revealed that three former cabinet members of the former regime still owe an outstanding loan balance amounting to D1,394,432.30 as at 31 December 2018. “There is a risk that the outstanding balances will not be recovered resulting in losses for the government,” the auditors queried.
Licence for mining black sand
The report highlighted that a mining company was issued a licence by the Geology Department to begin mining black sand at Kartong, Sanyang and Batokunku beaches without subjecting it to tender, contrary to section 30 (1) of the Mines and Quarry Act. The report said there is high risk that the licence was awarded based on favouritism and that there is high risk of further exploitation of the said mining area without giving regard to the environment.
The auditors noted that the Geology Department did not maintain a cash book to record collections made in respect of licence fees and royalties on both sand mining operations and stone quarries.
“In the absence of a cash book, the accountability of funds becomes difficult to determine,” the report noted.
According to the report, the Geology Department did not also keep relevant records which include records for daily sand extracted as well as shipment exported out of the country by the licensed mining company.
The report highlighted revenues collected amounting to D15,229,117.67 in respect of cargo scanning fees from vessels at the seaport were omitted from the Financial Statements as a result of untimely remittance collection from November to December 2018, contrary to the dictates of the contract.
“We noted an overstatement of revenue amounting to D240,660,331 as a result of correcting understatements made in 2017,” the report noted.
The report revealed that monthly tax returns from GRA (Customs & Excise) revealed an understatement of tax revenue totalling D656,880.47 included in the 2018 Government Financial Statements.
“Revenue receipts and GTRs System generated receipts and GTRs for non-tax revenue totalling D11,688,141.08 were not presented for our review. These revenues could not be accounted for as the receipts remained outstanding thus leading to potential misappropriation of public funds,” report added.
The report added that revenue collections from various ministries and departments amounting to D2,366,315.50 were not deposited to the Central Bank in a timely manner. “There were collections amounting to D769,321.82 and D15,000.00 for the Department of Physical Planning and Abuko Nature Reserve respectively that were not recorded in the cash book and therefore susceptible to fraud and misappropriation,” the report noted.
According to report, revenue collection from the Mining royalties was also understated by D4,245,144 in the 2018 financial statements.
Suspected misappropriation of royalty collections
The report further highlighted that comparison of the quantity of sand mined against the receipts provided revealed that 35,484 (m3) of sand was extracted between June and July 2018, amounting to D2,306,406.00 that were deposited in the Geology Department’s bank account.
“However, there was no evidence provided to show that the revenue deposited to Geology’s bank account was transferred to the Consolidated Fund. We could not therefore, ascertain if the revenue was accounted for in the books of government. This is indicative of a weak supervision of revenues with increased risk of misappropriation of revenue,” the report added.
The report outlined that review of the billings for payments on loan number 071 and 074 (Implementation Component of the ECOWAN Project in The Gambia and Community Based Infrastructure and Livelihood Improvement Project) respectively, revealed over payment of D58,106,160.72 in respect of loan interests.
“We noted that 6 (six) projects received additional loans without going through the National Assembly for approval,” the report explained. |
| 4 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| toubab1020 |
Posted - 01 Sep 2022 : 16:17:22
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https://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/national-news/cbg-rescinds-restrictions-on-fcd-shipment-of-foreign-exchange
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Sep 1, 2022, 11:06 AM
The Central Bank of The Gambia (CBG) announced the decision to rescind the recent restrictions on Foreign Currency Deposits (FCDs) and shipment of foreign exchange.
"The objective of the directives was to regularise conduct of foreign currency transactions and to prevent unethical behaviour of some market participants,” the Central Bank communicated in a dispatch dated 31st August 202, signed by Governor Buah Saidy.
Governor revealed that customers can now deposit and withdraw from their FCD accounts in the approved currencies. He said the Dalasi remains the country’s legal tender and that transactions should be quoted accordingly, and that normal shipment of currency resumes with immediate effect subject to the usual clearance process.
He assured the public of CBG’s resolve to ensure the smooth functioning of the foreign exchange market and safeguard the stability of the exchange rate of dalasi while advising all banks and licenced dealers in foreign exchange to strictly abide by foreign exchange regulations and guidelines.
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| toubab1020 |
Posted - 31 Aug 2022 : 17:36:45
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https://standard.gm/taal-says-govts-lack-of-interest-to-address-corruption-is-alarming/
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By Omar Bah on August 31, 2022
The spokesperson of the opposition UDP has expressed concern over government’s “lack of interest” to create the legal and governance architecture to address issues of corruption.
Speaking to The Standard in the wake of recent publications of the National Audit report and the former finance minister’s claims that State House blocked the implementation of the much talked-about vehicle policy, Almamy Taal said the Barrow administration has confined itself to the architecture of governance which is a legacy of the dictatorship that subjugated every other arm of the government to the executive.
”This is the plan – this is designed under the 1997 constitution. Things as basic as local governance decentralisation has gone through a metamorphosis that a lot of Gambians do not even discuss,” Taal added. The Gambia, he argued, is so small that a serious theory of government will focus on making it a City State just like Singapore.
“I heard people saying the opposition’s silence is threatening but if at all it is about coming out and making comments, I don’t think there is any issue in that but for those comments to be meaningful we need to have a consensus on what is the government for and how do you make it effective in the 21st century,” he added.
Taal said Gambians should have consensus on the fundamental things required to transform the governance of this country from the “settlement we have in the 1997 constitution”.
“Now if you want to discourage corruption there are certain things you have to learn from other countries that are established. For example, businesses and business people having very loose relationship with the executive – whether it is the managing director or the director general. These are things that cannot happen. In the West or progressive countries like Singapore, interactions between private businesses and the executive are very formal and are highly regulated. So that is where you start but we have seen here TV recordings where ministers are going to have dinner in the homes of Chinese business people and all kinds of mingling between officials of government and private businesses on terms and conditions that nobody understands. I am saying all these for us to understand that without good governance, rule of law and good laws in general, all these democratic promises we have been making to each other are not going to be effective because a well-governed society is based on rules that everybody follows. But as it is now, it seems our governance is about headlines. You open The Standard Newspaper you see a new policy intention or a new statement from a minister about governance. So at the end of the day, it is about us building a consensus around how we want to be governed in the 21sth century,” he argued.
Taal said Gambians would have to decide whether they want to keep the 1997 constitution for ever or bring about fundamental reforms so that the governance is based on laws that are helpful and empowering to the citizens.
He said unless the governance architecture is changed, Gambians will continue to blame each other unnecessarily.
“The important thing for politicians like myself is the need to understand that this is a very small country and the roles of governance should be similarly simple. You talked about a vehicle policy but we are talking about urbanisation where many people are living in flood prone areas and government seems to have no idea on how to address these issues. All these are things that we can sit and discuss about but we cannot do this without the overarching architecture of governance that is making the three arms of government to be checking on each other,” he noted.
He said parliament is there to make laws but because of the way the constitution has vested its powers, it is practically powerless to even make laws.
“Since 2017, how many laws have been made in The Gambia? People like me have been calling for law reform on a very significant scale – we have a Law Reform Commission since 1983 but it has been so unproductive and the productiveness of parliament itself is a matter of question because there has been no legal department until recently and even that, its autonomy is very limited and up to now, the constitution gives its right for the Speaker, Deputy Speaker and other members to be nominated by the president,” he lamented. |
| Momodou |
Posted - 25 Aug 2022 : 12:29:53
Auditors reveal 55 accounts with wrong closing balances
The Standard: AUGUST 25, 2022
By Omar Bah
https://standard.gm/auditors-reveal-55-accounts-with-wrong-closing-balances/
The National Audit Office report on the government financial statement of 2018 has revealed fifty-eight accounts with wrong closing balances totalling D131,907,000.00 in the statement of deposit (Note 20) of the financial statement which the report said indicated that the balance on the statement of deposit is misstated.
The report added that balances were identified in the following accounts as at the end of the financial year: Bypass account – D1,549,611,000.00, Imprest clearance account – D2,943,457.08, receivable clearance account -D1,240,331,369.67, Transfer account -D4,773,539,000.00, cash allocation accounts – D11,171,000.00.
“As a result, the cash and equivalent and receivable balance in the financial statement is misstated. There were un-reconciled items amounting to D311,677,864.98 brought forward from 2014. These items are persistently recurring from the prior audit and no evidence of corrections are provided. Failure to correct un-reconciled items for more than one accounting period renders the entire reconciliation process fruitless. There is no point in performing reconciliation if errors and omission are not corrected and adjusted on time,” the report noted.
Meanwhile, the auditors have also advised in their report for the Ministry of Finance to cease all payments to car supplier TK Motors pending comprehensive reconciliation between the supplier and the Ministry.
According to the National Audit Office report on the 2018 government financial statement, reconciliation of invoices against payment voucher 15PV000138 dated 01-March-2018 revealed that arrears amounting to D21, 293,000.00 were paid to TK Motors on two duplicate invoices.
“During the audit, we noted that payments amounting to D47,524,850.00 were made in respect of purchase of motor vehicles from TK Motors Limited. However, discussion with officials at the Accountant General revealed that there was no evidence of reconciliation performed between the government and the supplier to establish the amount owed to the supplier. Instead, reliance is placed on supplier invoice(s) to make payment. This is a subject of our previous management letter, but the issue remained outstanding.”
The auditors said there is a risk that payments are made on doubtful invoices leading to loss of funds to the Government.
“This is indicative that non reconciliation performed between Ministry of Finance & Economic Affairs and the supplier that could lead to significant waste of government resources. This is indicative of inadequate review and supervision of work done by junior staff,” the report said.
The recommended for the government to provide plausible explanation regarding the authenticity of the invoices in question and results furnished to the them for verification.
“In future, invoices should be properly reviewed before payments are made in order to avoid recurrence. All payments to TK Motors must seize pending comprehensive reconciliation between the supplier and the Ministry of Finance,” the auditors added.
However, responding to queries, the government said: “None of the invoices paid above was duplicated. Even though the same invoice number was quoted for all the vehicles supplied, each of the invoices was specifically for different vehicles mutually. This can be confirmed through the separate delivery notes which have specified the different chassis numbers. The supplier quoted the same reference for the different invoices. The vehicles are verifiable through the vehicle control Unit at the Office of the president.”
According to the auditors, they were able to verify all the eleven vehicles shown above except one. “The Mitsubishi L200 Double Cabin Pickup JNKL30HH006465.”
The report added: “A review of payments of arrears made to TK Motors revealed that a balance of payment amounting to D8,914,350.00 in respect of final payment for eleven vehicles supplied to Office of the President on payment voucher number 15PV000136 and dated 27 February
2018. However, we noted that the contract worth D23,675,354.00 was signed on 18 December 2017 after the said vehicles were delivered to the Office of the President.”
According to the report, 3 Pajero vehicles were delivered to Hon. Justice Edrisa F Mbai, Basiru VP Mahoney, & Amina Saho Ceesay, 2 vehicles to Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, President Lead Escort, Hon. Badara Alieu Joof, & one for State Guests, 1 GLS Pajero for Hon. Dawda D Fadera, & Nissan Pathfinder for Mrs Halimatou Tambedou-Jawara, Nissan Path Finder for Mrs Naffie Barry, Nissan Patron & Pajero GL for Mr Alagie O Ceesay & Mr Muhammed Lamin Jaiteh
respectively.
“There is a risk that the procurement process was not adhered to, thus a serious breach
of the GPPA act and the Regulation. This is indicative of internal control weakness and if not addressed could lead to significant fraud and other irregularities. We recommend that the GPPA Act and Regulation should be adhere to at all,” the report said.
Responding to the queries, the government said: “The concern is noted and management will endeavour to adhere to GPPA Act and regulations.”
But according to the auditors, the issue remained outstanding up to the time of finalising the management letter. |
| toubab1020 |
Posted - 24 Aug 2022 : 21:48:57
Let's see what the Government response is to the Audit Report above ,hopefully in the near future, but I do think that an enquiry is likely to be set up to investigate what went wrong their findings are likely to take some time. |
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