Africa-Press – Gambia. Auditor general Modou Ceesay who was removed from office last month gave the Gambia government an adverse opinion for the 2022 financial year.
“The financial statements of the Government of The Gambia did not present fairly the financial position of the Government of The Gambia as at 31 December 2022, and their financial performance in accordance with the Public Finance Act and Cash Basis International Public Sector Accounting Standards,” Mr Ceesay stated in the report presented to the National Assembly Monday.
He cited a litany of instances where financial statements were significantly misstated, or rendered unreliable with millions of public funds unaccounted for.
“I noted understatement of cash balance amounting to D136,498,110 between the actual year-end cash balance and the year-end cash balance reported in the financial statements. As a result, the financial statements are misstated. I noted overdue unreconciled items on receipts and payments amounting to D6,116,281,438.78 and D3,101,846,524.41 respectively from the bank reconciliation statement prepared by the Accountant General’s Department relating to cash and bank transactions from 2019, 2020 and 2021 remain uncorrected,” the AG said.
He also noted discrepancies amounting to D104,290,815.15 between the bank and cash equivalent balances in various accounts maintained by the Accountant General’s Department which according to him showed the financial statements were misstated.
The report also flagged differences on retained earnings disclosed in the financial statements including differences amounting to D1,602,070 between the trial balance and the extended trial balance and differences amounting to D283,954,327.31 between the closing of 2021 and opening 2022 of the retained earnings.
The top public auditor also reported that he “noted a discrepancy amounting to D3,413,813,040 between the cash balance disclosed in the statement of financial position and the year-end cash balance” reported in the statement of cash receipts and payments.
“I noted a difference between the general ledger and cash book balances amounting to D21,001,299.67. I reviewed the bank reconciliations for the BTL Special Project Dalasi Account prepared by the Accountant General’s Department against the unreconciled items for the same account and noted discrepancies amounting to D1,384,590.91. This difference is related to payments recorded in the bank but not reflected in the cash book. My review of the bank reconciliation statements from the IFMIS revealed unreconciled items of receipts and payments amounting to D20,248,347.22 and D7,653,010.53 respectively related to BTL (Special Project Dalasi and USD Accounts) from 2020 and 2021 remained uncorrected and uncleared. I noted differences amounting to D28,070,664.35 between the total receipts under the different BTL general ledgers and the balances disclosed under the statement of cash receipts and payments as BTL receipts,” he added.
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