By Omar Bah
The National Assembly committee on finance and public accounts has rejected the Banjul City Council 2019-2020 financial statements.
The financial statements are from 1st January 2019 to 31st December 2019, and 1st January 2020 to 31st December 2020.
Explaining why the committee rejected the statements, Honorable Kebba Lang Fofona, who chaired the session, said after careful scrutiny of the financial statements, FPAC has come to the conclusion that they cannot be adopted.
“They are rejected because of the disclaimer of the external auditors that, because of the significance of the matters described in the basis for disclaimer of opinion paragraph, we have not been able to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to provide a basis for an opinion. Accordingly, we do not express an opinion on the financial statements,” he said.
He said the financial statements do not adhere to the adopted accounting basis by the Banjul City Council and there are material misstatements in the financial statements.
“The absence of reliable explanatory notes to the Financial Statements of 2020; it is the decision of the FPAC that the Banjul City Council should re-do their financial statements for 2019 and 2020 and submit in April 2023. The Council is hereby reminded that financial statements should reflect the true and fair nature of the financial position of the institution and any repeated misrepresentation will result in contempt of the Committee (FPAC) and by extension the National Assembly,” Honorable Fofana concluded.
