By: Kebba AF Touray
Mr. Paul Gaye, an auditor at Neixa Consulting, reporting on the management letter of the Gambia College, reported to the Finance and Public Accounts Committee (FPAC) that the financial statements of the Gambia College do not represent a true and fair view of the financial statement of the institution.
He expressed this adverse opinion on Thursday, 25 April, 2024, during the appearance of the Management of Gambia College, for the presentation of their 2019 and 2020 activity reports and financial statements.
He reported to FAPC that they have audited the financial statements of the Gambia College, for the years ended 31st December, 2019 to 31st December, 2020.
The statement, he outlined, consisted of the statement of income and expenditure, financial position, payment of cash flows, notes and disclosures to the financial statements, including accounting policies.
“In our opinion, because of the significance of the matter discussed in the basis of adverse opinion section of our report, the accompanying financial statements do not give a true and fair view of the financial statement of the Gambia College as of 31st December, 2019 and 31st December, 2020, in accordance with the International Public Sector Accounting Standards,” he told FPAC.
He highlighted that they combined the audit findings for the reviewed periods, and that both reports were conducted concurrently, and the findings and queries observed were exactly the same, and as such they issued a combined management letter for 2019 and 2020.
Some of the observations he raised was the absence of annual budget and budget control mechanisms, stating that the observation shows the absence of guiding documents for spending, monitoring and financial control, an annual budget, quarterly reviews and revised budget, monthly variance analysis of budgetary control reports.
He said: “These are mandatory tools that every organization must maintain to ensure the intention of financial discipline.”
He recommended that the Governing Council of the Gambia College should ensure that the management and the finance directorate implement recommendations with immediate effects.
These recommendations, he stated, includes but are not limited to staff to receive immediate training to build the existing knowledge gap, preventing them from producing the mentioned reports.
The Management of the Gambia College, earlier reported to FPAC that in the 2019 fiscal year, the College generated a total income of D146,280,805.00, “from this income, we made a cumulative expenditure of D63,888,222.00 for the reviewed period. We derived a surplus in the period of D82,392,583.00,” said the management.
The total non-current assets of the GC, stood at D1,618,256.00, current assets stood at D137,674,536.00, resulting to a total asset of D139,292,793.00, which is represented by the entity’s current accumulated funds and liabilities, which stood at D138,343,226.00 in December, 2019.
“The current liabilities of the College stood at D994,567.00, whilst the non-current liabilities stood at 0 (zero),” said the Management of Gambia College.
Reporting on the 2020 financial transactions of the GC, the Management reported to FPAC that its total income for the year stood at D99,259,02.00, total expenditure stood at D71,836,80.00 as at 31st December, 2020 “this shows a surplus of D27,422,922.00”.
“The total non-current assets of the College in 2020, stood at D6,667,643.00, total current assets stood at D131,593,101.00, leading to a total asset of D138,260,744.00 for the 2020 fiscal year. This is represented by accumulated funds and liabilities, which stood at D137,530,209.00, whilst our current liabilities stood at D730,535.00 and non-current liabilities of 0 (zero),” said the Management.
Consequently, the Committee has rescheduled the Management to represent their said reports.
