Africa-Press – Gambia. Former chairman of the Finance Sub-committee of Mansakonko Area Council Sidisi Dibba has disclosed that Mansakonko Area Council was overstaffed.
Appearing before the Local Government Commission of Inquiry (LGCI) on Thursday, Mr. Dibba explained that some employees of the council would report to work without doing anything for the whole day. The witness testified that a decision was once made for the idle staff to be sent home until such time that their status was determined but said the council’s former CEO Pa SaitCeesay failed to comply and allowed them to report to work.
The committee recommended that the CEO send home 25 staff.
Meanwhile, Mr. Dibba, who served as finance sub-committee chairman from 2018 to June 2023, said former CEO Ceesay was written to by his committee to explain how and why three suspended revenue collectors were reinstated but the witness testified that the response they got from him was that the collectors were reinstated due an instruction from chairman Landing B. Sanneh.
The witness told the commission that the council’s conference center used to operate with privately sourced unofficial GTR receipt books under both Pa Sait Ceesay and his successor Seedy K. Touray.
He adduced that Mansakonko Area Council had never produced a financial statement during his time with them.
“Anytime they go to the National Assembly, they are sent home,” Mr. Dibba testified.
The witness said a joint meeting of the finance and establishment committees once agreed that D150,000should be used to maintain the Chairman’s private vehicle. This, he went on, brought about an argument in one of the council’s meetings when people came to know about the expenditure.
He explained to the commission that it was said in one of the council’s meetings that the Chairman’s friend was selling a Volvo valued at D600,000 for D450,000 and that the vehicle would be brought to the council for inspection.
Mr. Dibba testified that the former CEO and the finance director were spending the council’s money without consultation, saying the contracts committee was virtually dormant because the former CEO and ex-finance director were doing things without involving anyone.
He stated that former finance director Bai Gibbi Sallahonce told the finance committee that he was not going to use the cashbook because he had his system, adding that the inspection that he conducted three months after this proved that the recording system Bai Gibbi was using “was bad”.
The witness said the CEO had to write to the local government ministry and Local Government Service Commission to notify them of Bai Gibbi’s“incompetence”.
He explained to the commission that former CEO Ceesay’s car was purchased for D300,000 but that it broke down on its way to the council the day it was purchased. The vehicle, he said, was later sold for D300,000 but added that the sale did not follow due process.
On revenue collection, Mr. Dibba said the revenue collectors were undercharging businesses and compromising the tariff. He explained that the council’s finance committee members accompanied revenue collectors for two months and were able to raise D500,000 while collectors alone could not raise D200,000. He, however, said the committee members stopped after two months and that revenue collectors were the only ones collecting.
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