By: Kebba AF Touray
The Finance and Public Accounts Committee (FPAC) has revealed that a total of seven billion, three hundred and sixty-seven million, three hundred and ninety thousand, three hundred and thirty-seven dalasi and eighty bututs (D7, 367,390,837.80) lent to State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) have not been recovered.
FPAC made this disclosure at the National Assembly, when the Chairperson of the Committee, Hon. Alhagie S Darboe, and Member for Brikama North was tabling the report on 2019 accounts of the government, COVID-19 Fund Phase Two, financial statements of institutions, agencies, Municipalities, and Area Councils.
He reported the failure to recover the on-lend to SOEs segment of the report and said that during the audit, it was noted by the auditors that government on-lend loans totaling D7, 367,390,837.80 to SOEs were unpaid.
“However, there was no evidence provided to show that the respective SOEs were engaged to repay these on-lend loans, and discussions with officials at the Ministry of Finance indicated that the listed SOEs consistently failed to repay government on their respective due dates and NAWEC has never repaid government since the loans were contracted,” he said.
He said, “We recommended to the Ministry of Finance to ensure that there are adequate policies and procedures regarding repayment of loans on-lend to State Owned Enterprises. The committee further recommends that MoFEA urgently ensures that these loans are fully recovered by putting in a payment plan, which should be shared with FPAC.”
On IFMIS, he said that no minutes were maintained by the IT steering committee and the steering committee did not hold meetings during the period under review.
He said that the FPAC in that respect recommended that the Accountant General should provide updates to FPAC on the revitalization of the IT Steering Committee.
He said: “There is no change of management system in place during the period under review. FPAC recommended that the Accountant General should ensure that a management system is put in place and that the Accountant General should ensure that every change in the system is properly documented.”
