Madam Saho is a resident of Basse who started work at the Basse Area Council in 2018 as a revenue collector under licence. She has been an internal auditor at the Basse Area Council since the 1st of March 2021.
Giving evidence on how she was appointed as an internal auditor, she said: “I was a revenue collector. Then one day, the CEO called me and told me: ‘The General Council wants to meet you and redeploy you as an internal auditor. The CEO at the time was Ousman Touray.’
She further testified that she told him that she could not be an internal auditor “because I don’t have any background on it”.
She added that CEO Ousman Touray told him that she needs not to worry about that as she would be trained internally and would be sent for further training.
“When he made those comments, did you end up meeting the General Council?” Deputy Lead Council Patrick Gomez asked.
“No, they called me one day. I met them there and they gave me the redeployment letter from revenue collector to internal auditor,” the witness responded.
Counsel Gomez asked the witness whether she had the redeployment letter. The witness affirmed doing so. She gave the counsel a photocopy of the said letter. Counsel Gomez asked her about the original, and the witness said she left it at home but could provide it to the Commission.
The letter, dated 1st of March 2021, headlined: ‘Letter of Redeployment’ and was addressed to Fatoumatta Saho as internal auditor. It was written by Ismaila Saidykhan, admin officer for Basse Area Council, on behalf of the CEO and copied to other senior staff.
The copy was temporarily admitted into evidence as the Commission anticipated receiving and admitting the original copy of the letter.
Further, the witness was guided by Counsel Gomez to testify on various issues of concern, most of which had to do with revenue and finance.
The Local Government Commission of Inquiry was setup to impartially and holistically probe the financial and administrative dealings of local government authorities (councils) across the country.
So far it has unravelled massive administrative and financial wrongdoing and corruption, which involves abuse of office and fraud. The Basse Area Council is also found wanting, the Commission detected massive financial misappropriation and deep-rooted corruption.
So far it has unravelled massive administrative and financial wrongdoing and corruption, which involves abuse of office and fraud. The Basse Area Council is also found wanting, the Commission detected massive financial misappropriation and deep-rooted corruption.
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