#National News

Witness affirms BsAC paid medical bills

Sep 29, 2023, 11:41 AM | Article By: Ali Jaw

The Basse Area Council paid staff’s medical bills, according to revelations made by its internal auditor Fatoummatta M. Saho, who recently testified before the Local Government Commission of Inquiry.

 

When asked by Deputy Lead Counsel if she knew anything about BsAC paying staff medical bills, she said: “Yes, I saw the payment of the medical bills, but I did not know whether they had any policy or anything like that. I found it there.”

“When you became internal auditor, did they ever make any request to you in the form of pre-auditing so that you go through the payment vouchers to see whether it is in line with basic principles of accounting?” Counsel Patrick Gomez asked.

The witness said this was not done, elaborating that they only forwarded the vouchers for her to sign after the payments were already made.

“Do you stamp these vouchers or you signed them off?” Counsel Gomez asked again.

“Yes, I signed them off,” the witness said.

Counsel Gomez asked again: “But why would you do that when you know that it should first pass through your office for you to pre-audit these vouchers?”

“Because I found it there, that is why I thought that a policy was attached to the medical bills. But when the auditors came, they told me, ‘You should not sign this anymore,’ and I stopped signing them,” she added.

The witness was asked if she could provide the documents of those whom the council had paid for their medical bills. She said she would try to get them from her office.

The witness said she was not aware of the government subvention of D2,000,000.

"Why is that the case?" Patrick Gomez asked.

"It is because they did not tell me about it," the witness answered.

Counsel Gomez chronicled a series of withdrawals from the subvention handed over to the council by the central government.

She testified that she did not know about the withdrawals made regarding the subvention from central government.