By: Foday Manneh
Another finding from the Basse Area Council’s financial mismanagement report reveals large amounts of revenue collected have not been deposited to the council’s accounts since January 2022.
The revelations come barely 24 hours since BSAC responded to a TAT report over alleged mismanagement of D30 million within the council gathered from the same financial mismanagement report seen by this medium.
“Tax revenues collected have not been deposited to the banks as expected, therefore, breaching the loan servicing agreement with banks such as Vista Bank and Supersonics Micro-Finance,” the report said.
A manual receipting called the Gross Traffic Receipt (GTR) has been banned for use in collecting licenses, rates, and taxes for the council, but this has been the council’s revenue collectors have continued the practice, according to reports.
“One GTR book was missing, and it is stated that it’s for treasury use and was later submitted to the CEO by the Director of Finance.” The committee revealed.
The GTR claimed to have been missing was later found to be under the custody of the Director of Finance, and “after the committee reviewed the book, we found out that the book has used by Manlafi Badjie (Finance Manager) to collect rates and taxes, arrears, and hawker fees from 2021 to 2022 amounting to D12, 220.00.”
“Manku Manneh (revenue collector) was also using the book to collect lodgers from 2021 to 2022, and there was no bank slip to prove that funds amounting to D10, 250.00 were deposited,” The committee said.
The committee findings further discovered that activities in the book point to an unknown collector whose signature they could not ascertain.
According to the task-force committee report, 85 GTR receipts were used for the wrong purposes in generating revenues amounting to D49, 500.00 from July to August 2022.
“Some of the receipts bear the signatures of Manlafi Badgie and Manku Manneh under the verbal directives of the Finance Director. However, there is no bank slip to prove that the monies collected were deposited to the bank.”
The leaked report found the Finance Director wanting to collect licenses with the wrong revenue collectors during weekends without the knowledge of the license manager.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Basse Area Council, Ousman Touray, confirmed the subcommittee’s findings but described it as incomplete pending the report of professional auditors, adding that it would be shared with the public if completed.
Earlier, a source at the council told this medium that an audit report on the subcommittee’s findings was presented to the general board but turned down by senior staff.
“That was our internal audit, and they were asked to make corrections after a general council rejection,” the local council CEO told Alkamba Times.
