By Ramatoulie Jawo
The management of Farafenni General Hospital presented their 2016–2021 annual activity and audited financial statements to the National Assembly Standing Committee on Public and Finance Committee (FPAC) on Tuesday, October 10, 2023.
Baton Drammeh, the principal finance director of Farafenni General Hospital, disclosed to the committee that the hospital had a total revenue of 48,304,132.84 in 2020.
“It has a total payment of 43,469,975.46, and it has a closing cash balance of 15,012,134.50,” which is the end of December 2020, he disclosed.
Sering Mass Jallow, Director of Audit at the National Audit Office, has audited the accompanying financial statements of Farafenni General Hospital for the year ended December 31, 2020. The financial statements comprise a statement of receipts and payments for the year ended December 31, 2020.
“ In our opinion, the financial statement and related notes set out on pages 9 to 22 present fairly in all material respects of the Statement of Receipts and Payments of the Farafenni General Hospital for the year then ended December 31, 2020, in accordance with International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSASs) Cash Basis,” he stated.
Mr. Jallow added that they noted that in some instances, payment voucher numbers were replicated in 2021 as the payment voucher numbers were allocated to more than three different suppliers.
“We noted that the hospital has four subaccounts with expenditures on different line items amounting to GMD 751,204.17 in 2020 and GMD 2,031,973.40 in 2021. These payments were posted in the cash book but not recognized in the financial statements,” he told the committee.
He said they also noted that procurement amounting to GMD 751,204.17 in 2020 and GMD 2 031,973.40 in 2021 from the hospital subaccounts during the period under review did not undergo the GPPA procurement process.
“We noted that the hospital did not observe some of the minimum standards requirements outlined by their line ministries, among them is the non-availability of perioperative and public health officers and other categories in the hospital designation which are under staff.”
Mr. Jallow further revealed to the committee that they noted that a check dated May 7, 2018 amounting to GMD 59,587.40 was paid to X on May 11, 2018, but since then the cheque has not been cashed by X.
“However, it still appeared as stale cheque in the 2020 and 2021 bank reconciliation statements,” he said.
The management should ensure that they liaise with X to settle the liability by replacing the stale cheque, as recommended. Farafenni General Hospital has been rescheduled to appear before FPAC tomorrow for the consideration of their activity reports and financial statements.