By: Mustapha K Darboe
Over one million Dalasis have gone missing at Gambia’s mission at the United Nation in 2018, The Voice newspaper has learned.
Revenue arising from visa and emergency travel document fees amounting to GMD1, 343, 530.13 ($28,166.25) at the mission has not been accounted for as of 13th April 2018, according to 2018 audit report by Internal Audit Department.
The auditors attributed the allege theft to one Della King, a Fijian national working as personal and administrative assistant at the Permanent Mission to the United Nations.
“We recommend that the head of mission, Permanent Secretary MoFA and the Accountant General should investigate the unaccounted revenue immediately and take necessary disciplinary actions as prescribed in the Financial Regulations,” the auditors stated.
“We recommend that all unaccounted revenue be fully recovered and paid immediately into the mission’s revenue bank account.”
The audit report with assignment ref IAD/RE/Q1/201809 looked into the revenues and expenditures of the Mission between January 2015 to March 2018.
The Report has been sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Accountant General’s Office, Office of the President, Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, Gambia Police and National Assembly accountability committees (PAC and PEC) since November 2018.
But a senior government official familiar with the findings told The Voice that government is yet to act on it.
On January 9, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Finance, Modou Ceesay confirmed to The Voice that the audit report is currently being reviewed by their experts.
Ceesay said their reviews will look into the possible administrative or legal actions to take.
“We are yet to determine that course of action,” Ceesay said. “We just have to make sure that whatever we do, we do it right.”
The deputy head of mission at UN, Lamin Faati and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs do not believe there was any wrong doing.
The permanent secretary at MoFA, Sulayman Njie, told The Voice on January 9 “I have not seen a letter asking us to do that (to investigate)”.
“We don’t have any suspicion,” Njie added. “So far I don’t think there has been an investigation.”
Njie claimed he did not read the report but a trail of documents seen by The Voice indicated it has been sent to his office. PS Njie said: “the people working at the UN Mission are people of high integrity and character…”
When The Voice asked if the Ministry is on the side of the Mission, Njie responded “it is our embassy. We are on the side of what is right. What is right is to wait until we get all the facts…,” he argued.
But Njie is not the only person who doubts the audit findings. The deputy head of Mission at UN said the audit findings stand “absolutely disputed.”
“Management categorically rejects this “observation”. The conclusion is based on a construct that projects revenue in a very weak and questionable construct for that matter. Revenue is actual and collected,” Faati argued.
Despite that spirited defense made on behalf of King by Faati, the auditors whose response is indicated in the report said their findings are accurate.
The Internal Audit Department accused Faati of attempts to “conceal a theft of public funds without presenting any shred of evidence”.
Based on his role as the deputy head of mission, Faati is the Vote Controller.
“The audit team did not just make allegations of suspected fraud in our report but rather provided with details of all individuals who has either obtained a Visa or an Emergency Travel Document from the Mission, and extracted from that total of all the monies that could be accounted for and the remaining balance is what was reported as monies unaccounted for. This is not Greek nor Latin but simple arithmetic which is evidence for all to see,” the auditors said in response to Faati.
The auditors added that further analysis using Visa serials, stickers and holograms, has indicated that unaccounted revenue has even rocketed to $33,616.25 equivalent to D1,603,616 instead of $28,166
The Voice made an effort to reach the UN Mission through their official email address but there was no response until this publication. This medium could not however have a direct communication to King for her side of the story.
However, Njie told this medium that King who is accused by the auditors of theft is still working at the Mission.
There is no indication she is also relieved from revenue collection as recommended by the auditors.
But for the Finance Ministry, the integrity and professionalism of the personnel of the Internal Audit Department is beyond reproach.
“They (Internal Audit) have excellent men… They have capacity and they are professionals,” PS Ceesay at Finance said.
Meanwhile, a seasoned Gambia Government auditor who does not want to be named, told The Voice that disputes by managements over audits findings are common in most of their exercises.
“But it is the responsibility of the Finance Ministry to investigate. Auditors are professionals with standard template of investigation. They do not just allege, they investigate to reach a particular conclusion,” stated the source.
The Voice attempted to reach the Accountant General’s office on both January 8 and 9 to hear from him but his secretary said he was “finalizing a report”.
Other issues raised by auditors include hoarding of money amounting to GMD295, 024 ($6, 185), missing visa serial numbers and insufficient supporting documents on payments.
The auditors have also asked the UN Mission to refrain from providing consular services since it could have legal implication if noticed by the U.N.
“ We recommend that such services be directed to the Gambia Embassy in Washington,” the auditors stated.