By: Kebba AF Touray
The Director of Finance at the Mansa Konko Area Council, Bai Gibbi Sallah, said the Mansa Konko Area Council, spent a total expenditure of eleven million, seven hundred and eighty six thousand, forty one dalasi and nine bututs (D11,786,041.09), in fiscal year 2019.
Sallah made this report on Monday 6th February 2023, during their appearance before members of the Finance and Public Accounts Committee (FPAC) of the National Assembly, for the presentation of their Council’s 2019 activity report and financial statements for scrutiny, consideration and adoption.
“In 2019, expenditure for the Mansa Konko Area Council was D11,786,041.09. Total income generated by the council was eleven million, six hundred and fifty two thousand, one hundred and eighty four dalasi, and zero bututs (D11,652,184.00),” Finance Director Sallah reported.
Lamin Sanneh, Chairperson of the said Council told FPAC that some of the activities undertaken by the council during the year under review, include but was not limited to capacity of their staff.
“Capacity building which is considered as a requisite functioning requirement for performance is considered a priority for council. For this reason, council has supported staff and councilors with short training with the view to build their capacities,” he said. The staff trained during such training have finished their programs and are now back to work, and the staff trained in the year under review includes procurement officer, councilor, admin officer and development officer respectively. That as part of their efforts to promote business by creating accommodation for visitors and making them to stay at a close distance, council constructed beds at Bureng lodge to make the guest house more user friendly for those using the infrastructure.
“Total cost for the construction of the said beds was forty six thousand, five hundred and seventy five Dalasi only (D46,575.00). The community of Kwinella in Kiang Central and Jappineh in Jarra Central, benefitted from multipurpose centers built for the young people in order to enhance youth development,” he said. The initiatives he said was meant to make young people productive, and the total cost for the projects in one million, three hundred and fifteen dalasi only (D1,315,000.00).
Bakary Trawally, Director of Audit of the said Councils told the committee that they have audited the said financial statements of the Council for the year ended 31st December 2019, comprising income and expenditure accounts and balance sheet for the year.
“In our opinion, because of the significance of the matter discussed on the basis for Adverse Opinion Section of our report, the accompanying financial statements do not present a fair financial position as at 31st December 2019, and of its performance for the year ended 2019, in accordance with the Local Government Act 2022,” he said.
Some of the issues they noted during the audit exercise, he said, were the huge difference in the council’s cashbook balance for the relevant accounts with the corresponding codes in the ledger.
“There was a cumulative deficit variance of GM D618,130.00 and cumulative surplus variance of GM D125,219.00 respectively. These differences remained unexplained and uncorrected up to the time of finalization of this report. There were huge differences between most account balances in the ledgers with corresponding balances in the trial balance. A cumulative variance of GMD9,127,636.00 and GM D11,786,041.09 for revenue and expenditure respectively existed,” he said. He added that this variance was not explained or corrected up to the time of finalizing the 2019 audit report, and that most of the balances in both the ledger and trial balance had zero balances and the Director of Finance did not provide any explanation for them.
Council has been scheduled to reappear before FPAC for the consideration of their activity report and financial statements today Tuesday 7th February 2023 at 10am prompt.
