The Local Government Commission of Inquiry noted that the system audit report by the internal audit unit at the Basse Area Council found that the council withdrew monies from Baja Kunda, Sabi and Gambisara wards without following due process. The CEO (Ousman Touray), finance director (Lamin Suso) and the respective councillors withdrew the monies without informing their ward development committees. For Sabi ward, the amount was D100,000.
Premised on these findings, Deputy Lead Counsel Patrick Gomez asked Mr Jawara: “Do you agree with the findings of the Audit Report?”
The witness agreed that the withdrawal was made. However, he didn’t agree with the allegation that “due process” was not followed. Asked why, he said there was “no written procedure to be followed”.
Moving onto how he usually made withdrawals from the ward development account, he told Commissioners that he used to summon meetings with members of the ward development committee and they would discuss before raising withdrawal requests.
“Why is there a need to inform the members of the ward committee?” Counsel Patrick Gomez asked.
The witness responded that it promoted transparency and accountability in the way the ward funds were disbursed. Mr Jawara blamed the General Council for failing to pass a resolution to dictate how the monies received by councillors should be used. He said some councillors used to unilaterally make withdrawals without the notice of the ward development committee members. “There are no rules set out by the General Council. It is a failure on the part of the General Council,” he held.
The witness said the money received was for ward development and there should be rules to explain how it is spent.
On the D100,000 withdrawn from the Sabi ward development account, the witness said he received a call from ex-CEO Ousman Touray, who complained that the council had financial problems. “The CEO told me they wanted to buy materials and he wanted money from the ward development account. The CEO assured me that the money will be refunded as soon as the council gets funds,” he testified.
He told Commissioners that it was not the former finance (Lamin Suso) that reached out to him concerning the money.
Yuba added: “If you see the procurement, the rules were flouted and it was the council that used to buy items to implement the projects.”
As hearing continued, the deputy lead counsel referred the witness to section 504 of the Financial Manual, which centres around expenditure of funds.
Witness Jawara later agreed with the audit finding that due process was not followed after he was taken through the Financial Manual. The witness said the money was refunded in cash but he asked the council to deposit it in the account.
“The money was deposited in the account by Ndabah Krubally [cashier of Basse Area Council],” he attested.
He provided the Commission with a copy of the statement of account for the Ward Development Committee account. The statement, which was admitted into evidence, displayed the cash deposit by Ndabah Krubally in November 2021.
The witness said he was the chairperson of the Development Committee of the Basse Area Council and was also co-opted to the Finance and Audit Committee. He was also a member of the two task-forces that were set up to investigate financial mismanagement in the council.
“I was co-opted in the Finance Committee in late 2022,” he said. “Since I joined and until I left the council in May 2023, we never met. I was not the chairperson or the vice chairperson – I cannot summon meetings. I was simply added to a dormant committee when everything got out of hand.”
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