Well, we have heard this bluff from Chicken and company before, have we not?
  Where was Chicken when Lang was sent to rest at Mile two for 10 months to
figure out what to do with the balance of his cut from Yaya?  Look, Chicken
knows that Yaya is behind this and the last time I check, Yaya is handling
Chicken and his brood and not the other way round.


Central Bank, PMO to Face PAC
Wednesday 26th October 2005

By Ousman Kargbo

The estimated D1 billion shortfall at the Central Bank of The Gambia would
not go unverified since the National Assembly members of the Public Accounts
Committee (PAC) have vowed to see that the causes and utilisation of the
missing funds are thoroughly investigated.

A fulfillment of this has compelled the PAC on Monday to demand the
appearance of the General Manager of the Central Bank and the Permanent
Secretary of the Personnel Management Office (PMO) before the fact-finding
committee for questioning.

While the bank’s general manager is required to furnish the PAC with
financial records and documents in their investigations, the PS of the PMO
is to answer questions on how the allocation of funds were and are being
carried out to meet the crucial needs of government departments and the
security apparatus such as the police.

During the PAC’s sitting on Monday, the former accountant general, the
acting director of the Treasury, and the auditor general, respectively, told
the committee that some of the detailed financial records relating to the
audited report could not be traced.

Former Accountant General, Margaret Keita, had told the PAC that some of the
financial statements of the audited report were lost in the course of the
Paul Commission whilst others were misplaced owing to lack of proper and
adequate storage. She also said though back-up information was kept, the
computer systems and programmes available could not however readily access
all the essential financial records  required by the PAC.

The Auditor General, Baboucarr Sankareh, stated that he had tried to obtain
the necessary financial documents from the Central Bank to aid his auditing
exercise but to no avail. He stated that he was told by the bank authorities
that they had changed the system of record-keeping at the Central Bank and
that the financial documents required could not be located.

The Director of Treasury, Mr Alieu Jobe, stated that some crucial records
were missing, therefore it would be difficult to ascertain the cause of the
shortfall in funds at the bank.

But this did not go down well with the PAC, prompting the Majority Leader,
Falai Baldeh, to insist that the committee directly invite Central Bank
officials to appear before the PAC. He was strongly supported by the
National Assembly member for Wuli West, Hon Sidia Jatta. As a result, the
PAC resolved that the relevant Central Bank officials be invited to appear
before the committee.

In the same vein, the committee agreed that the personnel manager of the PMO
appear before them to throw more light on pertinent issues of funds
allocation. This was necessitated by IGP Ousman Sonko’s disclosure that the
police lack the essential logistics to adequately investigate fraud cases in
the country. He said the police force lacks a handwriting expert to detect
forgery. “Even the bandmaster we have has been on contract now for about 15
years,” he said, adding that they could not even give important advanced
training to senior police officers owing to lack of funds, in spite of
repeated requests for funds from the PMO.

The IGP explained that most of the fraud cases within the civil service that
have been reported to him by the former accountant general and other
government officials, have effectively been dealt with; some have been duly
referred to the Attorney General’s Chambers for legal advice, and only a
very few were pending.

The Solicitor-General, Mrs Rougie Thomasi, when asked about progress in her
department with regard to fraudulent cases, explained that though there had
been some progress, there also have been some constraints particularly
shortage of manpower, problem of logistics, and materials.

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