“There was no evidence to suggest that these were approved by the Minister before transfers were made,” the budget stated.
Reading the report, the committee chairman, Alagie S. Darboe, Member for Brikama North and also the Minority Leader, stated that a review of the files of MDAs at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs by the auditors revealed that virements totalling D2,469,441,457.38 were made between and across budget entities.
“There was no evidence provided to Auditors to suggest that a formal notification was sent by MoFEA to the budget agencies/entities before or after the virements were made, which is contrary to the Financial Regulations,” he said.
He read that the auditors requested submission of the documentations to ascertain whether the 2019 budget for the Government of The Gambia was prepared in accordance with Call Circular guidelines on the implementation of Program Based Budgeting.
However, he noted the following remain outstanding: Forecast revenue submitted by MDAs; the Budget Bilateral Meeting minutes of the remaining MDAs; Nominal roll of MDAs submitted by PMO to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs at the beginning of the year, and Evidence of Review by IMF, Cabinet and the National Assembly.
As a result, Hon. Darboe said auditors could not verify whether the 2019 budget for the Government of The Gambia was prepared in accordance with Call Circular guidelines on the implementation of Program Based Budgeting.
He further stated that the Auditors’ examination of the itemised report and chart of accounts revealed that all the segments in the chart of accounts were not populated and as such a report on the actual activities could not be generated.
“They noted that no control is in place to ensure budget entities give the accurate and complete cash allocation to the respective sub-budget entities,” the committee stated, adding: “Several requests were made by the audit team for the provision of the activity reports submitted by MDAs, which were not provided up to the time of finalising the audit report.
“A review of the itemized report revealed that 404 virements totalling D2,687,362,341.40 were made that were above the threshold of seventy-five per cent, contrary to Section 29, 4 (a) of the Public Finance Act, 2014.”
The Committee recommends that the evidence of virement approval by the Minister should be provided to the auditors and copied to FPAC for verification, adding that in future, the dictates of the Financial Regulations should be adhered to.
The Committee recommends that budget agencies/entities are notified whenever funds are vired from their votes, in accordance with the dictates of the Public Finance Act, 2014.
“MoFEA should ensure that virements are properly executed to avoid excess and unwarranted expenditures and should provide documentary evidence for making virements without notification,” the committee recommended, stating that MoFEA should ensure that the dictates of the Constitution and Financial Regulations were adhered to.
“The requested documentation should be provided to the auditors for inspection and verification,” they added.
The Committee further recommended that MoFEA should provide the Cash Activity Reports to auditors for inspection and verification and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs should work with the Accountant General’s Department to ensure that all segments in the Chart of Accounts were populated in order to report on actual amounts spent on each program, sub-program and activity.
“The Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs should adhere to the rules of the Call Circular and not issue any further cash allocation to MDAs that fail to submit their activity reports,” they stated.
