By Nelson Manneh
Deputies have on Wednesday tasked the Gambia Ports Authority (GPA) to submit their Activity Report and Financial Statements for the financial year 2017\2018 before the Public Enterprise Committee (PEC) of the National Assembly on or before 30th December 2019.
The legislators have also demanded that GPA should at the same time submit the Activity Report and the Financial Statement of the Ferry Service which is under their purview.
Halifa Sallah, the Chairperson of PEC said they have received the GPA Activity and Financial Statement for the year 2017, but they are yet to receive that of the ferry services, an institution under GPA.
He said they have agreed with the GPA for the two institutions – that is the GPA and the Ferry Services reports to be consolidated and presented before the PEC at the same time.
He said the reason for this is to remove the back logs of reports and to make sure that institutions present their report to the National Assembly on time as stipulated in the laws.
Mod Ceesay the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Works and Transportation, who deputized the Chairman of the GPA Board of Directors explained the state of affairs causing the delay in the submission of the reports.
“GPA has already prepared their 2017 financial statement and activity report and is already sent to the National Assembly, but that of the ferry services is still outstanding,” he said.
He told the lawmakers that the accounts of GPA and the Ferry Services cannot be amalgamated and therefore, the two must be kept separately.
“The pending ferry services financial statement is ready for submission,” he said.
He said they wanted to complete those two items and submit a full report to the National Assembly within few days.
Mr. Ceesay said the activity and financial statement for the year 2018 are just submitted to the auditors and they will be done with auditing within 8 weeks.
The management of GPA assured the lawmakers that they will consolidate the Activity Report and Financial Statement of the two institutions and present them before PEC on or before the 30th of December 2019.
