By Ramatoulie Jawo
Hon. Kebba Lang Fofana, a member of the National Assembly’s Finance and Public Account Committee (FPAC), in his capacity as chair of today’s committee sitting, ordered Banjul City Council (BCC) to submit four missing GTR books to the National Audit Office within one week.
“We are ordering that the books be supplied to the National Audit Office within a week. Today is Thursday, and before next week Wednesday, those books should be submitted to the National Audit Office. Because if they did not go there that is not good and, in our recommendations, or whatever we would be doing at the end of the day. It will be part of our actionable points. Because we are talking about two hundred receipt book papers or four books. Each book contains fifty sheets” He stressed.
Hon. Fofana added that the main reason they are not putting more emphasis on it is that Mr. Cham, the former BCC Accountant General, said the GTR books are not missing, they are there. He asked the Council to make sure they get an acknowledgement letter when they deliver the missing GTR books to the National Audit Office and forward a copy of it to FPAC.
Hon. Fofana said the auditors emphasize the importance of the GTR books, positing that one book or even one page of the book can contain millions or, equally, it can be less, which he said can result in a loss of revenue for the Council. He emphasized that if the council failed to submit the missing GTR books to the National Audit Office, his committee will be forced to act.
The Banjul City Council (BCC) appeared before the Finance and Public Account Committee (FPAC) of the National Assembly on Wednesday to present their activity and financial statements for the year 2019-2020.
During the presentation, the director of the audit for local Councils presented the Executive summary of the management letter of the BCC’s financial report for 2019-2020, where they noted that four GTR books were not presented.