The
Public Accounts and Public Enterprises Committees (PAC/PEC) of the National
Assembly Wednesday adopted the report on the update of the Audited Accounts of the Government of
The Gambia for the year ended 2011 and the report on the Financial Statement and
Audited Accounts of the Government for 2012 and 2013 respectively.
In
his contribution, the National Assembly Member for Sami, Hon. Ousman Njie, said
that according to the management letter on the payment vouchers it had revealed
that D534,751.38 and D952, 800.75 for 2012 and 2013 respectively were still
un-presented for verification as at end of the year 2013, as clearly stated
between the audit queries and the management responses.
For
this reason, Hon. Njie added, the committee needs detailed explanations on the
un-presented documents for the total of D1,487,579.13.
Also
in his contribution, the National Assembly Member for Illiassa, Hon. Lamin K.
Jammeh raised several issues concerning the report.
He
added that 2012 and 2013 accounts are “qualified accounts” which, he said, were
often frowned upon on institutions or MBGs by the lawmakers.
“I
will advise them to make sure they don’t come here with those accounts in the
future,” he said.
Hon.
Jammeh further cited the 2011 recommendations, which, he identified as the two
major key challenges that are yet to be addressed and these are the
confiscation of NAO vehicles, as mentioned to the Accountant General.
He
suggested whether the ministry could provide them with documented responses to
those queries.
The
National Assembly Member for Banjul South, Hon. Alhagie Sillah, spoke on the
problem of loan recovery and the need for the Ministry of Finance to have a
maintenance policy to avoid maintenance problem.
Responding
to some of the queries made by some NAMs, the permanent secretary at the
Ministry of Finance, Lamin Camara, said they were taking note of the issue of
“qualified accounts”.
He
said the Ministry of Finance is committed to ensuring that accounts are
scrutinised.
He
added that the commandeering of NAO vehicles is the mandate of the Ministry of
Finance to stop NAO vehicles from commandeers.
These,
he said, are directives they “don’t have the authority as a Ministry” to deny.
On
the issue of the introduction of budget items, PS Camara said a budget is a
policy document which had to be done within a framework based on the available
resources.
Abdou
Colley, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, in his statement on the
deliberation, said: “In the budgeting process you may not be able to foresee
all the budget lines and what happen is during the implementation you want to
realise something and then you realised that there is no particular line where
you can charge the ministries or agencies concerned; right to the Ministry of
Finance and say I want to execute this but there is no budget line for this;
can you create one for us.”
Minister
Kolley noted further that his Ministry would instruct the Accountant General to
create a budget line and do a virement from another approved line to fill into
the created line and stay within the envelope that is approved.
