Mr. Trawally made this disclosure on Thursday, before the commissioners of the Local Government Commission of Inquiry.
“Since the area councils started preparing financial statements from 2019, the Basse audited report was the only report with a clean opinion. I doubt if there was any other clean opinion again since then,” Mr. Trawally responded to the commissioners.
He added that they look at the materiality of some of the things provided to them to express an opinion, noting that it was not absolute which was why auditors don’t express absolute opinion but reasonable opinion.
“During the time of the draft, the Basse Area Council didn't provide a balance sheet but they later provided and submitted it. They worked with the team of auditors and they were able to provide evidence that’s why we accepted it.”
According to Trawally, Basse Area Council didn’t have a bank reconciliation, which was supposed to be the responsibility of the internal control unit and reported it in the final report. He added that did not mean the auditors were not seeing the actual incomes or expenditures made.
“These are laws that should be performed by the Internal Control Unit of Councils. Whether they are there or not, an independent person can come and know what actually transpired.”
Mr. Trawally affirmed that there are some issues that they knew were material enough, and would have an impact on financial statements. He, however, added that some were just internal control lapses and they do not have that direct impact on their opinion.
