By Makutu Manneh
During Thursday’s proceedings of the Local Government Commission of Inquiry, Modou Jonga, the Former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Brikama Area Council continued to accept his mismanagement in running the affairs of the Brikama Area Council.
Witness Jonga made this acceptance when he was questioned about the 2022 second quarter report of the Internal Audit of the said Council.
Lead Counsel Patrick Gomez put it to the witness that the audit report indicated that some staff of the Council who are given loans are deducted more than 50 percent from their salaries.
“Do you know that when a staff is given a loan, more than 50% cannot be deducted from their net salary,” Counsel Gomez asked.
The witness replied that he knows that 50 percent should not be deducted from a staff’s salary, adding that this was not correct and it contradicts the account and financial manual. He said there was no reason for doing this. On the contract given to Malick Gaye, a staff of the Council’s planning and development unit for the rehabilitation of a mosque and toilet facility within the council premises at the cost of seven hundred thousand Dalasi, and another one for the roofing of the Council’s car park storage, and lastly the painting of Council’s old administrative building amounting to eighty-eight thousand, eight hundred and twelve Dalasi, the audit report said no formal contract between the council and Gaye could be traced.
“I remember the rehabilitation of the mosque and the rest of the works are petty contracts and I am sure the documents will be available at the Council,” the witness said.
“For the mosque, we were to get a contractor from outside and based on the BOQ we received. At the level of the contract committee, we thought it was better for Mr. Gaye to do the work and be paid a far lesser amount. That was the motivating factor,” Mr. Jonga said.
Counsel Gomez told him how sure the Commission could be that there was no kickback since the contract was awarded to a staff of the Council.
“Can you convince anyone that there was no kickback,” Counsel Gomez said.
The witness said to convince someone, it has to be proven and said in this case, it will be difficult to prove. He said the process of awarding the contract was wrong and unlawful because they overlooked the issue of conflict of interest.
“Sometimes errors do occur during reconciliation and bank charges were duplicated. So the position of the management at the time was that these were reversed in the bank reconciliation statements,” he said.
“The audit report said they carried out a physical inspection of the road maintenance and rehabilitation along sections on the frontage of Box Ba Lot 2, indicating that the contract agreement was signed on the 30th of December 2020, for three million, eight hundred and seven thousand, one hundred and ninety Dalasi, seventeen butut,” Counsel Gomez told the witness. He further told him that auditors noted that the work as per the agreement was to be completed in September 2021; but said during the site visit on June 22, 2021, the work was still incomplete despite the contractor being fully paid.
Witness Jonga said the contractor was not paid in full, but was only given an advance of 20 percent. He said the delay in the work was due to the untimely purchase of material by the contractor, adding that this was during a time when there was a shortage of cement and basalt in the country.
Counsel Gomez told the witness that management’s response in the audit report was only about the delay and not about the contractor being paid in full.
Witness Jonga said that must have been an oversight, and agreed to provide the Commission with all the necessary documents regarding the payment.
Responding to the audit query of drilling two boreholes in Foni Bodali for one million, fifty-four thousand, two hundred Dalasi and taking 45 days to complete, the auditors said when they visited the sites, it was noted that work at the two communities was at a standstill, and said at one of the communities, the water tank was leaking with eight taps installed, instead of eleven as per the agreement.
The Commission noted that in one of the communities, the contractor said there was scarcity of water tanks, and that the delay was also due to the approval needed from the National Roads Authority for underground drilling. The witness said it took some weeks for them to have the approval, adding that they equally needed approval from GPPA for single sourcing.
“When we receive this report the rest of the three taps that were not fixed were then fixed and the rest of the work that was outstanding, was completed,” he said. The Commission asked him to provide them with documents regarding the drilling of this borehole.
Sitting continues.
