By Momodou Jarju
External Auditors of the Gambia Technical Training Institution (GTTI) have urged the tertiary school management to consider automating their information system to enhance the efficiency of its management.
Augustus Prom made the recommendations in its management letter to GTTI presented before the National Assembly Select Committee on Education, Training and ICT yesterday for the activity report and financial statement for the year under review 2016.
The external auditors said upon their review of the systems in place apart from the Finance Unit that has an accounting software, the remaining systems are manual, adding that this has an impact on Finance and Management because of the excess time needed to produce reports.
“We noted the following manual processes in place; Students Payment Status is manually generated, detailed list of outstanding fees per student per class is manually generated, detailed list of fees paid per student and per class is manually generated, and to ensure all students attending classes are captured in the system has to be manually reconciled,” the external auditors revealed.
According to the auditors, the implication of having the above important processes done manually creates inefficiency in administering the school because of the excess time needed to generate reports which could have been generated easily when automated.
“It would also expose the institute to a possible loss of revenue due to the manual process involved leading to errors going undetected to monitor the fee status of each student.”
In their response, GTTI management agreed to the recommendations made by the external auditors, adding that they are currently working with a service provider to conduct a feasibility study to address the issue.
Meanwhile, in the period under review, GTTI surplus was two hundred and eighty-nine thousand, four hundred and fifty-two (D289,452) which is less than the previous year’s income. In 2015, the institution had eight million, five hundred and sixty-one thousand, seven hundred and twenty-nine dalasis (D8,561,729).
It’s expenditure in 2016 totalled thirty-nine million, two hundred and forty-two thousand, one hundred and sixty dalasis (D39,242,160) while in 2015, it totalled thirty-one million, one hundred and thirty-seven thousand, two hundred and ninety-five dalasis (D31,137,295).
It’s total accumulated fund and reserves slightly drop from ninety million, four hundred and fifty-three thousand, two hundred and two-nine dalasis (D90,453,229) in 2015 and eighty-nine million, two hundred and twenty-nine thousand, three hundred and fifty three dalasis (D89,229,352) in 2016.
GTTI was found to be 80% compliant with the Public Procurement act 2014 and the Regulations 2003. The management of GTTI will appear again for consideration on a date to be communicated to them.
