Witness says not aware if council issues notice for defunct collectors

Mr Manneh made the disclosure in his response to Lead Counsel Yakarr Cox, after the former revealed that revenue collectors have no uniform, badge or any identification to certify that they are revenue collectors.

“So, how do the Lumo sellers know that they should pay money to revenue collectors, if you don’t have a badge, you don’t have a uniform?” Counsel Cox asked.

“Because they are used to them. They know them. They know that’s their job. So anytime they go around they comply and then pay,” the witness said.

Testifying about their operations as revenue collectors, he informed the Commission that their normal working days as collectors are from Monday to Thursday.

On how often they collect, he said, depends on the nature of the work on appointments. Sometimes we do go around like that to look for revenue, but sometimes we normally wait for the calls of alkalolu, especially in an area where they pay in bulk.”

He also stated that sometimes they do stay without going out for the whole week. ‘Sometimes we sit at the office.’

Quizzed whether sometimes they just sit without doing any work, he affirmed, saying, “yes, sometimes, it does happen, especially when we have no appointments.

Testifying last week, Soma Jallow, a revenue collector at the Basse Area Council rebutted the testimony of a colleague at the Basse Area Council, Sorrie Sillah, who had testified earlier before the Commission.

Jallow was testifying on the issue of the D16,000 collected revenue that was allegedly given to Finance Director Lamin Suso.

At the Commission, Soma Jallow’s written statement, dated 17th May 2023, was admitted into the records and marked as exhibit.

In her testimony, she told the Commission that her duty entails collecting revenue from shops (license collection), adding that her area of work is Basse South.

She testified that after the collection of revenue, collectors are required to directly deposit the funds in the council’s account.

On the alleged D16,000 saga , she recalled that the incident happened on a Friday when her Finance Director Lamin Suso asked her to accompanied Sorrie Sillah to a particular area in Garawol.

She explained that the reason for her deployment was because Sorrie Sillah complained that he could not handle the machine, do the printing and collect the money at the same time.

She testified that they collected D16,250.

Further, she added that on their way from collection, Sorrie Sillah’s phone rang and he spoke to Finance Director Lamin Suso.

“I heard him say, ‘Director we have collected and we are on our way coming,” the witness said.

On arrival at Basse, the witness said, Sorrie Sillah alighted and rushed to the office of the Director of Finance. After talking to the Director, the witness said Sorrie came out and asked her to give the money to Director of Finance Lamin Suso.

“He told me, ‘Aja, go and give the money to Director,” the witness said.

At this point, the witness said she only went to assist Sorrie Sillah, and that the machine used for collection belonged to Sorrie Sillah.

“I did not ask him why I should give Finance Director Suso the money because I only went to help, and the receipts were in his name. If the auditors come, they are going to audit Sillah and not me,” the witness said.

The witness said she was later summoned to a meeting, which was attended by the CEO, internal auditor, councilors and others, to explain her side of the story. She added that the CEO Ousman Touray was not happy with her.

 “Lamin Suso apologised to us. He said he would repay the money. We were all sitting there. The CEO and the councilors were all there,” the witness said.

However, the witness reiterated that Sorrie Sillah was not truthful in his testimony when he mentioned that he was not the one who instructed her to hand over the money to the Director of Finance. She also said that Sorrie Sillah was also not truthful when he testified that he did not receive a call from Sorrie Sillah.