The councilors of the Brikama Area Council have passed a resolution to dismiss Chief Executive Officer Modou Jonga and Finance Director Alhagie Jeng for financial irregularities during the tenure of Sheriff Sonko as the Council’s Chairman.
According to their resolution, CEO Jonga, together with former Chairman Sherifo Sonko and Finance Director, had taken a loan of over two million dalasi on behalf of the Council, which is still unaccounted for.
“The CEO further acted unlawfully in this transaction with the finance director Alhagie Jeng and former Chairman Sherrifo Sonko to take such a loan outside their budget line without any council resolutions for such a loan and ministerial approval. “
According to them, the Council will now pay the loan.
The Council further stated that the CEO could not justify the withdrawal of over 50 million dalasi from the Council’s coffers from January 2023 to June 2023. They alleged that the CEO, despite cannot also show payment vouchers for the expenses from the money.
The Council also cited the unavailability of GTS tickets, which they say has cost them financial losses, believing that the
“The Market Sub-committee of the Council has informed the Office of the Chairman that there were no daily duty collections of all the markets in the West Coast Region from the 21 October 2023 to the 25 October 2023 due to lack of GTR Tickets. This was a huge loss of the Council’s revenue, which the Council could not afford to lose. Considering the fact that the Council was struggling to pay the salaries for September 2023 for some of our staff.”
These and the employment of the relatives and sons of Finance Director Alhagie Jeng in the Council are major reasons why the Council passed a resolution to dismiss the CEO and Finance Director.
