By Mariama Marong
The economic crimes and corruption case involving three (3) officials of the Ministry of Health continued on Monday, 13 November 2023.
The accused persons are Muhammadou Lamin Jaiteh – Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, BallaKandeh – Programme Manager of the Malaria Control Programme and Omar Malleh Ceesay – Executive Director of the Health Promotion and Development Organization.
They were charged with eighteen (18) criminal charges, including official corruption, disobedience of statutory duty, conspiracy, economic crimes, forgery, and theft.
Satang B. Houma, a chartered accountant at the Ministry of Health speaking about her role as the Financial Controller of the Project Coordination Unit, explained that her office is responsible for the financial management of the Ministry of Health. She testified that her unit handles the finances of development partners for project implementation.
On how funds are disbursed, she said that the programme unit of the project submits the request to the Project Coordination Unit which verifies whether the requests aligned with the approved budget.
“If approved, the funds are endorsed for disbursement by the Permanent Secretary,” she explained.
Defence Counsel Lamin S. Camara continued with the cross-examination of Satang B. Houma (Prosecution Witness One). The case is before Justice Ebrima Jaiteh of the Banjul High Court.
The witness said funds are audited by the Ministry of Health’s internal audit unit covering from 2018, but she is not sure of the end date of the audit exercise.
The witness, who is the head of the internal audit unit, said she saw the report.
“Do you know who will have custody of the internal audit report?” Senior Counsel Camara asked.
“The final internal audit report is submitted to the head of the program,” the witness answered.
“To your knowledge, has Global Funds ever queried about the report? Camara asked.
The witness said the Global Funds local firm did the further review.
“That review was conducted by the local firm of global funds,” Lawyer Camara said.
“Yes, it was conducted by them,” the witness replied.
Asked about the partners, recipients, and sub-recipients of the projects, the witness said the Ministry of Health has what they call implementing partners and Hector was an implementing partner for the four activities.
The matter was adjourned to 14 November 2023 at 10 am for the continuation of the cross-examination.
