Prior to his appointment as a staff at the Basse Area Council, the witness said he worked at Jahalli Pacharr from 1989 until 2002. From 2002, he helped his father during the rainy season to farm. He said that he still farms and has a groundnut field.
He started work at the Basse Area Council as a revenue collector at the market. He said it was the then-chairman who told him to apply for the job as he was a petty trader by then. He said the then-chairman was Foday Danjo.
“He approached me and asked me to apply,” the witness said.
“He said I was to go to the market; they would attach us to the market as revenue collectors,” he added. He also testified that initially, when he was going to the market, he had no appointment letter.
He was, at this point, asked whether he had his employment letter with him. He said it was not with him at that moment but promised to bring it the following day (today). He further testified that he worked as a revenue collector for two years - from 2018 to 2020.
Witness Krubally stated that he was then redeployed from a revenue collector to a cashier and was placed on grade 5.1 of the government pay scale. He informed the Commission that he was on grade 3 while he was a revenue collector.
“Who decided that you would be redeployed from a revenue collector to a cashier?” Deputy Counsel Patrick Gomez asked.
The witness responded saying: “This was during the time of Bubacarr M.J. Kanteh. If I do not forget, he was the one who wrote and signed that I should be in the office.”
“Now can you tell us your educational background,” Counsel Gomez directed.
The witness asserted that he attended Koba Kunda Primary School from 1978 to 1984 and proceeded to St George’s from 1885 to 1989. He said he completed his basic education in 1989 and never did any further education or any course on finance.
His written statement was shown to him. He confirmed it as the one he had given to the investigators, and it was therefore tendered into evidence and marked as an exhibit. According to his statement, he had 16 years of work experience at Jaharri Pacharr.
Mr Krubally continued his testimony, saying that at Jaharri Pacharr, he did accounts training one, accounts training 2 and then he became an accounts clerk. He enunciated that did not do a formal course to obtain a document but was trained by people.
On how he would describe his job as a cashier at the Basse Area Council, the witness told Commissioners that he was responsible for preparing payment vouchers and cheques. He testified that he could also be sent to do withdrawals at the bank.
Quizzed whether he used to be sent to do withdrawals from banks while he was at Jaharri Pacharr, he said he used to do so.
“Is that all your job is as a cashier while you were working at the Basse Area Council?” the deputy lead counsel asked.
The witness said he also used to prepare salary payrolls in collaboration with the then-Finance Director. He said when the Finance Director was not be around, sometimes he (Finance Director) would assign the IT officer to do so with him (witness).
The witness also held that that most of the transactions carried out in the council were carried out without being subjected to internal auditor’s assessment.
“In fact, I dear to say all of them [and] not most of them. You don’t pass anything to the internal auditors,” Counsel Gomez said.
The witness agreed with the counsel, adding that things only began to change recently.
