Saturday 06/11/99 REPORT OF FRAUD AT PRISONS, IMMIGRATIONS & LOCAL COUNCILS The House committee on Finance and Public accounts report on the Auditor General's report of December 1998 currently before the National assembly has uncovered major discrepancies and irregularities in the departments of Prisons, Immigration and Local counsils as hundreds of thousands of dalasis went missing. Goods paid but not delivered to the tune of D80,000 as well as items donated by charitable organisations are unaccounted for. An amount of D4,237.49 collected from prisoners and a cash seizure of D2,050 was missing from the Mile two prisons safe. IMMIGRATION: In January 1996, it was found that receipt books valued at D10,200 could not be accounted for at the passport section. KANIFING MUNICIPAL COUNCIL: The report revealed that D173,394 collected between April and September 1996 cannot be accounted for but the police arrested three people in connection with the fraud. In March 1995, D33,200 was paid for stationery without any evidence of delivery. BANJUL CITY COUNCIL: The report uncovered that contracts amounting to D238,825 were awarded without competitive bidding. MASANKOKO: The report disclosed that D289,314.36 of fuel has been spent for vehicles most of which were not owned by the council. KUNTAUR: Twenty-four unused market ticket books amounting to D5,465 could not be accounted for. KEREWAN: The sum, D193,922.83 was spent on fuel while payments amounting to D108,790.04 were not supported by required documents. BRIKAMA: The report uncovered that D269,260 being council revenue could not be traced. the committee was told that some of the tickets were merely not checked by the auditors but not missing. This report states that it was claimed that out of D269,260, only D9,500 was not accounted for and that an assistant treasurer has been ordered to pay the money. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------