From the auditor to the audited. What an irony indeed! 

I hope our colleagues in the Gambian Civil Service will learn their lessons.

Malanding S. Jaiteh


From the Point Newspaper
Serious Allegations At Auditor General's Commission: Ida Accuses Fatoumatta 

Miss Ida Njie a private secretary of the former Auditor General Mrs. Fatoumatta Jallow has alleged to the Auditor General's Commission yesterday that the Audit report for the National Youth Service Scheme (NYSS) was deliberately delayed because according to her, the Deputy Permanent Secretary at the State Department of Youth and Sports was a brother to the Auditor General. 

According to Miss Njie, she was all the time asked her about the report for printing purpuses but she will always say that she was not ready with it, even though the reports should be ready within a matter of two to three months. A Commission of Inquiry headed by Justice Itam was set up to investigate the activities of the Auditor General Mrs. Fatoumatta Jallow, who was suspended from her post some months ago. 

Continuing her evidence before the Commission yesterday, Miss Njie further said that when the Auditor General understood that she knew all the deals she was making in her office through email sent to the United Kingdom, she decided to use her own private email addresses instead of the official one. She expression her objection for her claim that the Auditor General of the country was seeking advice from abroad for the drafting of reports submitted to the National Assembly. 

She explained that Mrs. Jallow used to send draft reports to the United Kingdom where they would be edited and sent back to her in the Gambia. She also narrated how Mrs. Jallow went to her mother in her absence telling her that she Ida has confessed in her office taking nine missing fuel coupons and that she wanted her mother to refund the money or else she will take her to the police. 

"My mother then paid her D1, 350 for the alleged missing coupons without any receipt from Mrs. Jallow." Ida denied taking the said coupons. She also told the Commission that while she was away for holidays, some documents were removed in her absence and she reported the matter to the NIA. Ms. Njie further told the Commission that she was the sixth secretary under the Auditor who only spent more than one year in office. 

She charge that the Auditor used her staff like her own slave, errand boy or girl at the same at the service of her father. John Gomez who was also implicated in Ida's evidence categorically made it clear to her that he has never kept any fuel coupons in his custody and that records will even show that from November up to December he was away in the United States for a course, but Ida maintained that the said incident happened before he left for the US. 

Lawyer Ousman Sillah counsel representing Mrs. Jallow in cross examination told Ms. Njie that she went to the Auditor General's residence in the morning when her mother paid the D1,350 for the missing coupons in the presence of four witnesses. He further told her that it was the same money that she was given back the following morning to go and replace the said missing coupons at the Elf station and she signed the invoice in the presence of one Mr. Sallah, but she denied it. The Commission continues sittings 

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