He testified that this led to the allocation of more than necessary.
Mr Njie was testifying yesterday before the Local Government Commission of Inquiry to give evidence over crucial matters.
Njie was appointed to the position of internal auditor in 2014 by the Local Government Service Commission.
He said his office ensures internal controls are effective and efficient, periodically reconcile books of account and produce reports.
He testified that he had prepared reports for the Kuntaur Area Council. He admitted that he only produced annual reports instead of the quarterly reports as dictated by the law. He stated that the workload was heavy.
He provided internal audit reports and activity reports, which were admitted in evidence.
Witness Njie admitted that the CEO sometimes withdraws monies from the account, adding that the CEO sometimes receives payments like night allowance.
The witness said there were three GTR books in 2018, but the records of only two were found while the third was missing.
He said the affected staff was Ansu Trawally. He also stated that the physical books were not found, and testified that the staff repaid the money for three years.
Mr Njie said the Kuntaur Area Council did not have a loan policy, adding that he, like other staff, accessed loan from the Council without any policy to follow. “It was improper,” he said.
He testified that the deductions were made from this salary. He was asked to produce his bank statement to show evidence of the deductions.
He was also asked about a matter he classified as doubtful payment in the 2018 internal audit report. The amount was D251, 493.20. The witness said the payments did not follow due process.
In 2020, the witness said, there was over-allocation of fuel to the CEO (Nfansu Darboe), Director of Finance (Morro Keita) and Chairman (Saihou Jawara).
“Fuel was issued randomly without procedure. That was why fuel was over-issued,” the witness said.
The witness said the CEO and the director of finance were doing the allocations without following any due process.
He added that the matter was taken to the General Council for a discussion and decision. In the end, they came up with a threshold for allocations.
