By: Kebba AF Touray
The Public Enterprise Committee (PEC) of the National Assembly has tasked the Gambia Printing and Publishing Corporation (GPPC) to recover outstanding debts amounting to over one million, eight hundred and thirty thousand Dalasi (D1,830,000.00).
The Committee gave this task to officials of GPPC in its report on the Corporation which they developed as a result of audit queries raised by the National Audit Office, regarding financial transactions of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), during their audit exercise with SOEs.
Tabling this report, the Chairperson of PEC, Hon. Lamin J. Sanneh, said the total amount of the aforementioned outstanding debts loaned to debtors by the GPPC, are as follows:
D130,600.00; D66,000.00; D230,000.00; D160,000.00; D176,000.00; D40,000.00; D49,977.5; D271,383.00; D166,750.00; D100,641.00; D66,100.00; D87,285.00; D239,623.00; D50,700.00; D214,651.00; D466,525.00; D179,621.00; and D404,386.00.
On trade receivables, Chairperson Sanneh said after-date payments were not received from some of the debtor balances on the amounts stated above. He said the Committee recommended the Board of GPPC to ensure that these loans are followed and recovered, and to furnish them with evidence of follow-ups and repayments by those servicing their outstanding loan balances. He said that the Committee further recommends for the Management of GPPC to resort to enforcing collateral and personal guarantees for those in default, adding the Committee also recommended for the Board to put in place a receivable management policy to ensure timely recovery and to make provisions for those that are irrecoverable.
On payables, he informed members that the Auditors noted that there were no after-date payments for some trade and other payable balances after the end of the year, and said the committee recommended for the Management to ensure that suppliers are paid on time before going forward.
On Governance and board matters, he reported that according to the Auditors, there was no ToR for the Board covering all aspects of their work beyond those reflected in the GPPC Act, and that the audit Committee met only once during the year as opposed to quarterly board meetings. He said the Committee recommended for the Board to ensure it has a comprehensive board charter specifying how it should conduct its business, in line with the SOE Act, 2023.
“The Committee further recommends for the Board to ensure that its subcommittees such as the Audit / Risk and production units are active to deliberate on issues such as control, risk management and governance and to report back to them,” he said.
