Comrades:

Hon. Halifa Sallah was correct in questioning Jammeh's integrity, relative to the Auditor General's Report.  The Minister of Finance has responsibility in making sure that parliament is presented with timely report on the country's financial condition.  Jammeh, as CEO (leader) of his cabinet is responsible in making sure that his Minister of Finance is qualified in performing his duties.  Few months ago, the Minister of Finance categorically asserted his inability in curtailing the downward slide of the Gambian Dalasi.

The objective of financial reporting, including an auditor's report hopes information provided:

1.   Is useful in making investment and credit decisions--
     will outsiders continue to give aid or credit to the APRC
     government?

2.   Is useful in asessing future stability of financial
     components--will the APRC government continue as a going
     concern, relative to future cash flows?.

3.   Is useful in assessing an enterprise's resources, claims to
     resources, and changes in them--will the APRC government be
     able to pay its financial obligations?

The qualitative characteristics of Conceptual Framework of Accounting consist of primary and secondary qualities. The primary qualities are Relevance and Reliability.  The secondary qualities are Comparability and Consistency.

Relevance calls for timeliness, predictive and feedback values.  Halifa's inquiry of the Auditor's Report justifies that the reports have been late.  If I am not mistaken, the Auditor General's Office failed to present to parliament three-year consecutive reports.

This raises the question of whether outsiders can attach any relevance to any future report from the Auditor's General's Office.  It is of value that outsiders may weigh that with such a pattern of behavior on the part of the APRC government, there exists less relevance on future reports from the Auditor General's Office.  Future reports may lack predictive and feedback values because three consecutive reports lack timeliness and are not at present available.  Will one be able to predict with reasonableness?  Can one be given feedback on the country's financial conditions?

Reliability calls for representational faithfulness, verifiabilty and neutrality. Will outsiders and other stakeholders conclude that future reports from the Auditor General's Office are faithful, that they are verifiable and that there exists no bias on the part of the APRC government?

In the area of secondary qualiities, I am of the opinion that the Auditor General's Report lacks and will continue to lack comparability and consistency.  Since there were no reports for three consecutive years, stakeholders will be unable to compare a present report with any past report because of the APRC government's inability in providing timely reports.

Since the Auditor General attests to provide unbias opinion, he or she should be objective and independent, have integrity, and performs his or her auditing duties with due professional care.

Can one conclude with reasonableness that the Auditor General's Office lacks integrity, objectivity, independence and skill in performing functional responsibilities?  Can one conclude with reasonableness of Jammeh's integrity, objectivity, and independence in making sure that his government has no direct manipulation on the Auditor General's Report?  Can one conclude with reasonableness whether fraud and inducement exist even if they are of immaterial fact?

One may conclude that since there were no reports for three consecutive years, the APRC government lacks objectivity, independence and integrity in providing timely reports on The Gambia's financial statements.

Hon. Halifa Sallah, therefore, was correct in inquiring about Jammeh's integrity.

Naphiyo,

Comrade ML Jassey-Conteh
Insturctor, Accounting






-------Original Message-------
From: Pasamba Jow <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 08/23/03 07:19 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Ebou Jallow and the question of political integrity

>

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