By Ramatoulie Jawo
On Monday, May 20, 2024, the Management Team of the University of the Gambia appeared before the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance and Public Accounts (FPAC) to review their audited financial statements for 2019-2020.
During the session, committee members scrutinized several issues highlighted by external auditors in their reports.
The auditors’ findings included a discrepancy of D29 million between the revenue recorded in the university’s portal and the general ledger. This difference had not been reconciled or adequately explained by the management.
Mr. Ousainou Corr, the Finance Director of the University of the Gambia, responded to these concerns. He explained that the discrepancy stemmed from the inclusion of revenue from graduate and medical students, which had not been fully integrated into the portal. He noted that the gap was narrowing as more graduate students registered online, suggesting that the differences were due to the timing and method of revenue recognition.
“And that is why I am saying the differences in 2019 are reducing. Because we are getting more of graduate school students registering online on the portal. So, those are the issues that made this thing gradually converge between what they are getting from the portal, and what we are recognizing in the general ledger. Because we are taking revenues that are outside the portal as part of our revenue. Because they are actual revenue. The fact that they are not registered in the portal does not mean that they are not revenue,” Mr. Corr explained.
Hon. Kebba Lang Fofana, a committee member, highlighted another point of contention from the auditors’ report, which pertained to the university’s property, plant, and equipment valued at D116 million. The auditors identified a D5.4 million variance between the fixed asset schedule and the general ledger, which also lacked reconciliation or justification by the management.
The auditors expressed that, given the significant discrepancies detailed in the ‘Basis for Adverse Opinion’ section of their report, the financial statements did not accurately reflect the University of The Gambia’s financial status as of December 31, 2020, as per Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, the Companies Act 2013, and the Tertiary and Higher Education Act 2016.
Moreover, the audit of the university’s trade receivables uncovered a D221 million discrepancy between the portal-recorded receivables (D350,708,248) and the general ledger (D129,362,859).
The auditors noted the absence of reconciliation or substantiation for this discrepancy, which impeded their ability to conduct further necessary audit procedures. The portal’s limitation in only showing the current balance of receivables restricted the auditors from performing comprehensive tests on these amounts.
“We also noted that impairment was not recognized on irrecoverable student receivable balances third-party confirmations were also sent, but replies were not received for the sample selected. Additionally, note that 14 of these financial statements include D150 million related to trade receivable, of this balance, is a negative balance of D17.2 million reported as debtor control,” the report revealed.
The auditors reported that this negative balance lacked substantiation and reconciliation by the Management, preventing them from executing the necessary audit procedures on this figure.