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. ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤