By: Nicholas Bass
The interim Chairperson of Batokunku Village Development Committee (BVDC), Muhammed Sillah also a former auditor general of the BVDC has alleged that signatories of the BVDC conspired amongst themselves to embezzle D1,071,000 from the village coffer.
Mr. Sillah claimed that the money was embezzled by the former VDC chairperson, Mustapha Kandeh, treasurer Saikou Jatta, and secretary Famara Ceesay.
“After going through all records and bank details, I was able to detect a sum of one million and seventy-one thousand Dalasi was missing from the balance of BVDC funds,’’ Sillah told The Voice in an exclusive interview.
Sillah explained that at the onset of his audit exercise, he realized that eight hundred and sixty-one thousand, five hundred and eighty-five Dalasi and forty-five bututs (D861,585.45) were missing from BVDC’s funds. He added that he recollects that the former BVDC treasurer, Saikou Jatta, in one of the VDC meetings affirmed knowing what transpired, stating that that was the reason he (Jatta) did not reply to Sillah’s comment, regarding the missing funds.
Sillah accused the ex-treasurer Jatta of tactically using former chairperson Kandeh to prolong the auditing process “just to effect plans of paying the money.’’
He deduced that financial mismanagement was not an error but fraud because if the treasurer (Jatta) could make withdrawals from BVDC’s account without executive decision, the treasurer had the clear intention of using the money.
The Batokunku VDC interim chair stressed that the former VDC treasurer, despite knowing that BVDC constitution prohibits the treasurer from keeping more than D30,000, he insisted on keeping D633,900. Sillah added that the treasurer also withdrew more than D500,000 with an expenditure of D571,315.
When the former BVDC chairperson, Mustapha Kandeh, was contacted, he denied conspiring with any of the BVDC signatories, adding that he never handled the physical cash of the BVDC. “I have never laid my hands on the VDC funds,’’ Kandeh told The Voice.
Kandeh, however, explained that the BVDC assigned former treasurer Saikou Jatta to keep D450,000 alongside the daily collections from the village’s mining area, adding that Jatta had told him that the cash had been tampered with.
According to the ex-BVDC chairperson Kandeh ,the ex-treasurer Jatta told him in ”confidence” that he had a plan of settling the missing cash, claiming that over D300,000 went missing.
Former treasurer Saikou Jatta refused to speak to this reporter, claiming that the former VDC chairperson should brief him on what to say before any interview is granted.
“The former chairperson is the overall boss, and you should go and interview him first before coming to me,’’ Jatta told this reporter.
Efforts by this reporter to reach former BVDC chair Famara Ceesay proved futile.
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