By: Kebba AF Touray
The Public Enterprise Committee (PEC) of the National Assembly has faulted the purchase of a vehicle by the board and management of the Gambia International Airline (GIA) for the Managing Director, worth three million, four hundred and ninety-three thousand, three hundred and thirty-three Dalasi (D3,493,333.00).
PEC said this transaction was discovered in the Audit report of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), which came on the heels of queries raised by the National Audit Office (NAO) on the 2020 accounts of the Airline.
Presenting the report before Members of the Assembly, the Chairperson of the Committee, Hon. Lamin J. Sanneh, explained that NAO observed that a motor vehicle (Mitsubishi Pajero GLX (BJL 5570 S) bought for the Managing Director, cost D3,493,333 from TK Motors Limited, and this did not pass through the procurement department and was not done in accordance with GPPA’s guidelines.
“The receipt and delivery note from the supplier were not attached to the payment voucher as well. It was also noticed that the new vehicle was acquired in a part-exchange transaction with the Managing Director’s existing car with registration number BJL0573N,” PEC Chairperson said.
However, he said that there was no independent valuation report to determine the fair value of the old vehicle, saying the value used in the exchange was based on the recorded net book value of D1,493,333.00. He said PEC recommends that the Board should ensure that all the acquisitions of assets are in accordance with relevant Laws and Regulations guiding such transactions, because lack of compliance with GPPA guideline is a violation of the Act and that lack of involvement of the procurement unit indicates a weakness in the application of the company’s internal control.
On unretired imprest of the airline, PEC Chairperson Sanneh reported that the auditors observed that there were outstanding imprest amounting to D835,185.
“The Committee recommended for Management to ensure that all imprest are retired by 1st May 2024, and that details of such retirement be furnished to the Auditor General for verification,” he said.
In respect to bank reconciliation, Chairperson Sanneh unveiled that during the audit of cash and bank deposits, it was observed that no reconciliation statements were prepared for the below bank accounts amounting to approximately six hundred and eight thousand, three hundred and nineteen Dalasi and twenty-nine Butut (D608,319.29), because they are said to be dormant.
PEC Chairperson said the Committee recommended that the Management should ensure that dormant accounts are regularly reconciled, saying that PEC recommended for the Airline to have regular bank reconciliation statements prepared and reviewed in order to ensure that unauthorized transactions are detected and corrected on time and the dormant accounts should be closed if no longer needed.
“During the review of the Hajj Deposit Account, the Auditors compared this account in the general ledger (GL) to the GIA Hajj Current Account balance from the Eco bank statement, and noted that the General ledger balances amounted to D29,091,683.54 while the current account statement of the Hajj held at Ecobank shows a balance of D17,576,268.58 as at 31 December 2020. He said this resulted in a negative variance of D11,515,414.96, and said the auditors further noted that the Management of the Airline has been using the funds in the GIA Hajj Current Bank Account for some of their operational activities.
“The Committee recommends for the Board to ensure that all the funds in the Hajj Current Bank Account are strictly monitored, and for the Airline management to desist from using it for other operational activities,” Chairperson Sanneh said.
Dilating on the long outstanding payable balances recognized as revenue, Hon Sanneh said that during the review of the Airline’s revenue, the Auditors observed that a long-held payable amounting to D26,709,147.40 was written down as sundry income. He added that according to the information provided to the auditors, it was the board that decided to write down this longstanding payable balance, saying there was no evidence that these respective creditors were no longer in business or have a written document as evidence that they will no longer pursue their balances. He said the Committee recommended for the stakeholders to be consulted before taking a unilateral action to cancel out these payables, saying management should also seek legal advice on the matter immediately.
