By Makutu Manneh
Ousman Touray, a former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Basse Area Council has told the Commission that ex-Finance Director, Lamin Suso of the aforesaid council had forged his signature on some vouchers.
Appearing before the Commission on Monday, former CEO Touray continued with his admission to his wrongs and those that were committed under his watch without addressing them.
The testimonies of witnesses and audit findings revealed that the Basse Area Council between 2018 and 2023 had faced a serious financial crisis. The Local Government of Inquiry is carrying out a full and impartial investigation into the local councils in a view to enhancing transparency and accountability by conducting a holistic and fair review of the financial and administrative operations of the councils.
Audit reports confirmed that former Finance Director Lamin Suso used to withdraw funds from the Basse Area Council accounts and deposit them into his business account named Alatentu Agency. The amount was over 6 Million Dalasi. Account statements from the banks revealed that some of the revenue collectors of the Basse Area Council and employees of the Finance Unit of the same Council deposited the money in the Alatentu account.
Ousman Touray said the problem of revenue collection at the Basse Area Council was mainly due to the attitude of the revenue collectors and the ineffective supervisory role of the Finance Unit of the Council. The witness said some of the councillors used to do revenue collection together with the revenue collectors. During one of their council meetings, Ousman Touray said some of their colleagues said they should not be collecting tax from the people directly because it was not part of their mandate. The reason Garry and the few others gave was the revenue collectors should be empowered to do the collection and if they cannot, they should be replaced. The witness said the other councillors did not support this idea and therefore, a decision was not reached to stop councillors from doing revenue collection in the Basse Administrative Area.
The witness said in 2021 they had development projects in their annual budget, but they could not implement anyone of them.
“Looking at the revenue and the liability that we had, definitely we could not have implemented any development budget at the time,” the witness said.
The projected amount for the projects in 2021 was over 32 Million Dalasi. The Commission noted that the Basse Area Council took 15 Million Dalasi loans from the banks towards the end of 2021, which were not part of the Council’s budget. The former CEO stated that it is due to poor planning.
“The major problem we had was poor planning,” the witness said.
The witness, Ousman Touray, said he took some of the loans to the general council for approval, but some were not taken to the general council. Touray stated that the council gave him power of attorney to seek funding through loans.
“For overdraft facilities at the bank, we don’t inform the general council,” the witness said.
For the loans, the witness said he used to take documents of the assets of the Council as collateral for the loans at the banks.
Lead Counsel Yakarr Cox asked the witness to explain what sense it made for the Council to give him a power of attorney to carry out tasks that were already part of his job, but the witness could not answer the question. Counsel Cox stated that the job of the CEO includes signing contracts on behalf of the Council and if the power of attorney was meant to give him the power to sign contracts on behalf of the Council, what sense does it make? The witness answered that the power of attorney was from the general council and he cannot tell who advised them to give him the power of attorney.
“Don’t you think a council resolution would have been enough than having a power of attorney?” Vice Chairperson Samba Faal asked.
“Yes, a council resolution was enough. It was all due to lack of proper advice because we should have stopped at council resolution to secure loans,” Ousman Touray replied.
On the council projects, the Commission noted that the Basse Area Council implemented about 28 projects for the period under review. When asked whether any of the projects were part of the Council’s procurement plan, the witness said he could not tell. Ousman Touray, however, said the Council does not have the funds to implement the projects.
“Was there a real expectation by the time you come up with these projects that you will fund them?” Lead Counsel Cox asked.
“Frankly, we cannot fund all these projects,” the witness said.
The Commission noted that the Basse Area Council projected the implementation cost for 2023 projects were 33.5 Million Dalasi. Chairperson Jainaba Bah told the witness that the projections were not based on realistic figures.
“You just assumed and drafted a document,” Chairperson Bah said.
“You are right,” the witness answered.
The witness said some of the projects in the 2023 budget were included in the previous years’ budgets. Ousman Touray said some of the projects were allowed to be part of the budget when in actual sense there was already a decision that those wards wouldn’t get any projects in that year.
“Why do you give the people expectation that they will have something when you know they won’t get anything? Lead Counsel Yakarr Cox asked.
“It’s not right,” the witness answered.
“These are the same people you collect revenue from. If you were in their shoes, would you have paid tax when you don’t know where what you pay goes to?” Counsel Cox asked.
“It will be difficult to get anything from me,” the witness replied.
Ousman Touray said the budget of the council should be realistic so that the projects will be programme-based and resource-based.
“Mr Touray, if you had followed the rules you would have got a good budget and now you are waiting for a new system when you don’t know how it works,” Lead Counsel Yakarr Cox said.
“All these problems boil down to lack of reconciliation,” the witness said.
“You don’t do what you are supposed to do,” Lawyer Cox said.
“Yes,” the witness answered.
“So, how do you expect the Council to function with a new system when you cannot comply with the simpler system? If you cannot do it now why do you need to do it then?” Lead Counsel Yakarr Cox asked.
“It is going to be difficult,” the witness replied.
“You will agree that it is the people that are the problem and not the system,” Lead Counsel Yakar Cox said.
“Yes, it is the people that are the problem and I am part of them,” the witness said.
In 2020, the Establishment Committee of the Basse Area Council indicated that there were 218, staff but the Establishment Register provided that there were 124 staff and 24 pensioners. Chairperson Bah asked the witness why there a difference, and the witness said the correct staff roll was 124 staff and 24 pensioners. The Basse Area Council pays Eight Hundred and Seventy-One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-Two Dalasi Fifty-One Butut (D871,772.51) as of June 2023. Out of this amount, Seventy-Six Thousand Dalasi (D76,000) is paid over the counter while the rest is bank payments as of June 2023.
The witness said he is on administrative leave and still receiving his full salary including all the allowance. He added that he still receives the IFMIS allowance of Ten Thousand Dalasi (D10,000) even though he is not working.
“We are not using the system and therefore, we should not be paid for that,” the witness said.
The witness said the IFMIS System is meant to bring about efficiency in the councils and it aligns the councils with the central government. Ousman Touray said the system is free.
“So, why do you choose to pay yourself money for a system given to you for free and meant to make your work easy for you? You have been paying yourself since its launch,” Lead Counsel Yakarr Cox said.
Ousman Touray said the only reason for paying themselves the IFMIS System allowance was because the central government pays its staff and therefore, the Basse Area Council should also pay its staff.
The witness said the Director of Finance is paid Eight Thousand Dalasi (D8,000) for the IFMIS System allowance while the rest of the personnel in the accounts unit and the engineer and planner all get Five Thousand Dalasi (D5,000) each.
The former CEO said he came to know about the former director of finance’s business accounts after the system audit. Ousman Touray does not own any businesses.
The list of landed properties of the Basse Area Council was tendered and admitted into the records, and marked as exhibit. The witness said none of those lands has been leased.
The Commission noted that the Basse Area Council spent more money on the development of offices than they spent on development. The spending on the finance unit alone went over 4 Million Dalasi in 2019.
Deputy Lead Counsel Patrick Gomez stated that the accounts of the Basse Area Council showed that they have been spending huge sums in their offices and little or nothing on development.
“What was spent on the finance office was three times more than what was spent on development in 2019,” Lawyer Patrick Gomez said.
The witness said the annual cost for salary is around 7 Million Dalasi. They spent 1.4 Million on transportation and 2 Million Dalasi alone for the Finance Department.
“In reality, the development should be more than the recurrent expenditures,” the witness said.
The witness said the situation at the Basse Area Council was not normal.
Deputy Lead Counsel Patrick Gomez provided the witness with the vouchers ex-Finance Director Lamin Suso tendered before the Commission. Lamin Suso already informed the Commission that those vouchers should be discarded since he already discredited them.
The Commission noted that the vouchers do not meet the requirements as they have several discrepancies in terms of date, voucher numbers, signatures and information.
The witness said some of the vouchers were signed by the director of finance.
“The signature on the column I was supposed to sign is not my signature. The signature was forged,” the witness said.
Ousman Touray said the reason why he did not sign some of those vouchers was because the finance unit could not justify those claims for payment. The witness said the compliance auditors from GPPA flagged that during one of their exit meetings after carrying out an audit of the Basse Area Council procurement activities. When asked whether he reported the matter to the general council, former CEO Ousman Touray said he did not report the matter to the general council for decision to be taken. The witness insisted that Lamin Suso used to forge his signature to sign on vouchers.
“To me you created the Finance Director,” Gomez said.
“Yes,” the witness answered.
“You made him who he was,” Gomez said.
“Yes,” Ousman Touray answered.
“That was why it was difficult to report him,” Lawyer Gomez said.
“This was why you could not report him,” Lawyer Gomez said.
“Yes,” the witness answered.
The witness said he was not aware of any instance when the former director of finance Lamin Suso pre-financed the activities of the Basse Area Council.
He was asked about a 400 Thousand Dalasi withdrawal by Ndabah Krubally. The witness said the 1 by 6 salary payments are from the revenue collected and the rest are from bank overdraft. He explained that the Director of Finance has never pre-financed salary for the 1 by 6 salary. The former CEO said the former finance director was not truthful to the Commission when he mentioned that he pre-financed the 1 by 6 salary payments.
Ndabah Krubally, who withdrew the money, said the money was given to Lamin Suso as a refund for the 1 by 6 salary payment. The witness said that was an arrangement between Lamin Suso and Ndabah Krubally, of which he was not involved and not aware.
Lawyer Gomez informed the witness that there have been several instances when the Council’s monies were withdrawn and deposited in Lamin Suso’s business account – Alatentu Agency. The Commission noted that Bubacar M.J. Kanteh, also a former finance director used to withdraw huge sums of money from the Basse Area Council accounts. Deputy Lead Counsel Gomez listed some more people who withdrew monies from the Council’s accounts
“You were part of the problem until it got to a certain level that you couldn’t take control,” Lawyer Gomez said.
The lawyer dismissed the witness’ testimony that he was not aware of those withdrawals and the witness admitted that he was aware of the withdrawals.
The auditors indicated there was weak governance at the Basse Area Council and the committees were not sitting regularly. The dormant committees were the agriculture sub-committee, education sub-committee, finance sub-committee and development sub-committee among others.
“What had happened to the Basse Area Council under our tenure was not fair to the Basse Area Council and the people of the area,” the witness said.
Deputy Lead Counsel Gomez told the witness that Basse Area Council prepared a budget without development activity.
“Correct. We were indebted because of the liabilities,” the witness said.
“For you people, development was not a priority,” Gomez said.
The witness said they had the intention to implement development plans, but they don’t have the funds.
“You guys were busy spending monies in your offices and you did nothing for development,” Counsel Gomez said.
The witness admitted that a huge chunk of the money was spent on their offices instead of development.
