By Yankuba Jallow
Amadou Touray, a cashier working at the Brikama Area Council (BAC) has admitted before the Lcoal Government Commission of Inquiry that he has unlawfully withdrawn over one hundred million dalasi from the Council’s accounts.
He began working for the Council in 2019 after completing his certificate and diploma courses at the Managing Development Institute (MDI) in Associated Accounting Technician (AAT). The course duration was from 2014 to 2016. The offer of employment dated 1 January 2019 from the BAC to the witness was tendered and admitted in evidence.
The statement of the witness dated 25 March 2024 and two other additional statements he gave dated 23 April 2024 and 24 April 2024 were tendered and admitted in evidence. The statements were accompanied by some extracts of payment vouchers, payrolls, and printouts of withdrawals he made.
On his role, he said that as a paying-out cashier, he used to receive allocations to make payments. His additional role is to assist the Council in its financial dealings.
He was asked to explain the process of allocating the funds to him. He testified he would be issued a cheque in his name, which he takes to the bank to do the withdrawal. After the withdrawal, he will begin to make expenses. He explained that when he comes with the money in the council from the bank, he is sometimes given payment vouchers to make payments, and sometimes there are no vouchers. He admitted that some of the payments made were done without the authority of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Brikama Area Council, who is the approving authority for all payments.
“Why will you make payments when the CEO is not aware of it?” Counsel Gomez asked.
“I get instruction from the Director of Finance to make those payments,” the witness said.
The witness admitted before the Commission that his withdrawals were all unlawful since they failed to adhere to due process of law on how to raise vouchers and do withdrawal. He further testified that he had never seen or heard about the Financial Manual for Local Government Councils. Instead, he came to know about it during the course of the daily public hearings of the Commission.
“At the time, I did not know it was wrong. I am learning from the Commission. Now, I ensure that I follow due process of law. Now, I don’t allow them to send me to make withdrawals without supporting documents,” the witness said.
The Financial Manual dictates that all payments must be duly authorised by the CEO and passed to the Internal Audit Unit for pre-payment auditing. The witness testified that most of the vouchers were not complete – meaning they were not proper, and he was not supposed to do the payments.
Counsel Gomez read several provisions of the Financial Manual for Local Government Councils to the witness and asked whether they followed those processes. The witness responded that they were not following most of those provisions, especially those that have to do with financial control in which the witness was involved.
“No one was following the regulations when spending the Council funds,” Lead Counsel Gomez said.
“Yes, Counsel,” the witness said.
The Lead Counsel moved on to question the witness on his withdrawals from the respective bank accounts of the Brikama Area Council.
“The withdrawals were unlawful,” Lead Counsel Gomez said.
“Yes, Counsel,” the witness answered anytime the question was asked.
“There no supporting documents,” Counsel Gomez said.
“Yes, Counsel. The withdrawals were all unlawful,” the witness replied.
“You are responsible,” Gomez said.
“Yes, Counsel,” the witness said.
For the Supersonicz Microfinance Account, the witness on the 7th February 2024 withdrew D400,000.
“What was it for?” Gomez asked.
“I don’t think I will be able to remember that, Counsel,” the witness answered.
“Why?” Gomez asked.
“It is because I was only issued a cheque to make the withdrawal,” the witness replied.
“If you cannot account for this, it suggests that payment was made to you for your own benefit,” Counsel Gomez told the witness.
“Yes,” the witness replied.
“What was it for?” Counsel Gomez asked.
“Counsel, thus is beyond me. I wouldn’t know. I don’t know the purpose of the withdrawal,” the witness replied.
On 7 June 2021, he withdrew D213,000, 12 February 2022 he withdrew D200,000 and on the same day, he further withdrew D500,0000 from the Supersonicz account of the Brikama Area Council. The witness was asked to account for each of those withdrawals.
“What I can recall is that it will be either for Council expenses or payment or salaries,” the witness said.
He was referred to the Financial Manual on how to make salary payments and other council expenses. The Manual demands that the financial officers and staff of the finance unit must ensure adequate care is taken when making expenses by adhering to the process laid down, especially for salary payments and other council expenditures. The Manual clearly indicated procedures to be taken at each stage, including how to make withdrawals and payments.
For the witness, he testified that whenever he goes to the bank, the only thing he takes along is a cheque written in his name.
In total, the witness alone withdrew over 2.9 million Dalasi. He testified that the entire withdrawals were unlawful.
For the Eco Bank account of the Brikama Area Council, the witness in 2019 withdrew D10,000, in 2020 he withdrew over D12.6 million, in 2021 he withdrew over D14.1 Million, in 2022 he withdrew over D16.7 million and in 2023 he withdrew over D15.5 million. He testified that none of those withdrawals followed due process. He further testified that the withdrawals were unlawful.
For the Vista Bank account of the Brikama Area Council, the witness withdrew over D320,000 in 2020, over D14.4 million in 2021, over D27.1 million in 2022 and over 2.16 million in 2023. He reiterated that none of those withdrawals followed due process. He further testified that the withdrawals were unlawful.
For the GTBank account of the Brikama Area Council, the witness in 2020 withdrew D673,968.45, in 2021 he withdrew over D3.3 million, in 2022 he withdrew over D9.6 million and in 2023 he withdrew over D1.4 million.
For the Trust Bank of the Brikama Area Council, the witness in 2021 withdrew over D12.8 million and in 2022 he withdrew over D14.
In total, the witness withdrew over D100 million. The witness said all the withdrawals were unlawful.
