By Arret Jatta
Mustapha John, the market manager at Banjul City Council (BCC), told the Local Government Commission of Inquiry that one of his revenue collectors, Mariama Sillah, absconded with the council’s money to Germany.
The witness explained that Sillah was a collector at the market attached to the rental department.
“When she was travelling, her husband was already in Germany, Mariama was in one of the council’s biggest zones called Zone D and in that zone, when you collect a GTR of 50 leaves, you will collect at least D40,000. Mariama collected one of those GTRs and travelled with it,” he explained.
Mr John added that Mariama has not repaid the money.
Suspension
Meanwhile, Alagie I Sowe, a revenue collector at the council also testified revealing that he was suspended for a series of fraudulent activities and cash suppression at the council.
Sowe made the admission after Lead Counsel Patrick Gomez told him he was suspended in 2018 for suppression of funds.
“The findings were that you were engaged in a series of fraudulent activities. The Internal Audit Department in 2018 discovered an amount of D172,000 that you did not deposit in the bank. And then you have the National Audit report 2017, 2018 where there is an issue regarding an amount of D678,540. Do you recall this?” Gomez queried.
Sowe responded: “It is not that I didn’t pay it into the bank, it was an audit query, we had a six-month audit exercise.”
He contended that he was not given an audit query to respond.
“They just did their audit, and wrote what they wrote and left. I went to the council with my cashbook to meet the director of audit to show them that with [regard to] the D172,000 suppression, I have deposit slips and the receipts are in the cashbook…” he further said.
He explained that the normal practice with national audit is, anytime they came up with an audit finding, they would send him the draft so that he could respond, but in these cases, that did not happen.
D324,000 for ‘urgent needs’
Meanwhile, another revenue collector at the council, Mustapha ABE Sarr, also admitted to suppressing council’s funds amounting to D324,000 in 2021 and 2022 because he had “urgent needs”.
Sarr said he took the monies at different periods without any authorisation and that he has paid back only D25,000.
Sarr also told the commission that he took a one-year leave of absence from work to contest an election, adding that he received his salary throughout the period.
The visibly bemused commission chairwoman Jainaba Bah asked: “Now, just to confirm, were you receiving your salary from January 1st to December 31st?
Sarr boldly answered: “Yes.”
Hearing continues.
