By Ousman Saidykhan
Nuha Ceesay, a UK-based Gambian finance system specialist and certified chartered accountant, is petitioning the National Assembly’s Committee on Public Petitions (CPP) to investigate allegations of “professional misconduct and impropriety” involving the Auditor General and the leadership of the National Audit Office (NAO).
Ceesay said the allegations emerged from his research on how “top” civil servants manage their institutions and their impact on the lives and livelihoods of Gambians and residents.
“This research looks at audit reports produced and published by the NAO and those subcontracted to private audit firms,” the PhD fellow said. “It also looks at the Gambia’s debt bulletins, periodic actual expenditure as reported by the Gambia government, and reports from GBOS, Central Bank, World Bank, and IMF. I also interviewed some staffers of the NAO and some senior civil servants.”
Ceesay said: “I will encourage the National Assembly to investigate these allegations to establish the veracity of these claims.”
According to him, some pieces of evidence he has gathered suggest that the NAO leadership team travels every month, financed by the taxpayers, and some of the travel is business class, which he said raises doubts as to whether there are any tangible benefits from the trips.
“One piece of evidence suggested that on one of these trips, the team attended a conference organized by the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) meant for Internal Auditors. This conference could have been attended virtually, paying a little over $1000, but the NAO team decided to attend in person, paying at least $2000.
“Evidence I gathered on this trip also suggests that the auditor general, whilst in the USA, took some days as annual leave but, upon return, included those days in his Per Diem claims. The evidence further indicated that one of the directors, Alagie Drammeh, refused to approve those fraudulent claims, but he was forced to go on leave,” said Mr. Ceesay in his petition.
Nuha Said he has also received “direct complaints” from individuals during his research about the lack of transparency and due process in the appointment of Mr Baboucarr Ceesay as a director at the NAO without the position being publicly advertised.
“There was also a direct complaint that Ms Yamundow Gai, who was formally the Director of Finance at the GRTS, was also appointed as a director at the NAO again without following due process as the position was not advertised. The evidence I gathered also indicated that the recruitment process for Yamundow started whilst the NAO was auditing GRTS, which raises concerns about the objectivity of the audit report produced from that audit,” he said.
