By Makutu Manneh
Samba M. K. Leigh, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Janjanbureh Area Council, has admitted that he has appointed two of his sons as revenue collectors in the council, without following due process.
Mr Leigh said his sons were appointed by the council and this happened when there were vacancies for the position of revenue collectors at the council. He added that together with the chairperson, they decided to appoint three collectors, including his sons Amadou and Momodou Leigh together with a boy whose name he did not disclose.
When the Deputy Lead Counsel Patrick Gomez asked him if the sons applied and were interviewed for the positions, he replied in the positive and said they were interviewed.
However, CEO Leigh said he cannot produce his sons’ application letters and cannot remember if there were minutes of the establishment committee sitting over their employment. He said the only document he can provide is their appointment letters.
“That is the problem because you give orders for your sons to be appointed while the right procedures were not followed,” Counsel Gomez told the witness.
Leigh replied thus: “Well there were vacancies and I told the chairperson and we agreed to appoint three new revenue collectors. I informed my sons and they applied.”
He added that the council can appoint staff from Grades 1 to 4. Counsel Gomez agreed with the witness, but said that does not give him any right to appoint his family members without following due procedure. Counsel Gomez further told him that he cannot produce his sons’ application letters because there was none. The witness’ respond to this is that he does not know if he can find the application letters.
On the issue of over staffing and ghost workers at the said council, witness Leigh said people are talking about this, but for him he has not seen any because all the staff are being paid their salaries.
Counsel Gomez informed him that the auditors have reported that Janjanbureh Area Council was over staffed and that his finance director at the time also agreed that the council was over staffed.
“I do not agree because we were paying all our staff. This is not true, Manneh, the Finance Director, was annoyed because he does not want to hand over,” he said.
He also said that it is possible that the council was over staffed but they were paying every staff.
“This shows your understanding of how to run the council, because if you employed more than you need, you are over staffed,” Counsel Gomez told him.
Counsel Gomez reminded the witness that the auditors have also noted that some collectors work part time and asked why that was happening. The witness agreed that some collectors work twice a week but said this was not part time because they are paid full salary. Counsel Gomez told him that for collectors to work twice a week is part time employment.
On the issue of CEO Leigh authorizing collectors to make payments from the revenue collected before banking, at first the witness said they do not do such, and explained that since the banks are far from them, if they need money for council activities, they do call a revenue collector to bring the money or make payment before banking it.
Counsel Gomez told him that this is what the auditors were talking about. He was also informed that there are some staff at the council who were not in the payroll and some collectors like those in Bansang, pay themselves from the revenue they collect. He replied that he cannot give an answer to this. Counsel Gomez responded to him that this is because those staff were not budgeted for.
Leigh also agreed that they were not preparing financial statements and bank reconciliations, and said this was the responsibility of the finance director.
Counsel Gomez then reminded him that he is the CEO and the finance director was under him and he is responsible for the council’s account. Witness Leigh further said that whether wrong or right, they used to prepare financial statements that were not accepted.
