{"id":53958,"date":"2024-02-29T18:24:09","date_gmt":"2024-02-29T18:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/?p=53958"},"modified":"2024-02-29T17:53:25","modified_gmt":"2024-02-29T17:53:25","slug":"auditor-general-speaks-to-standard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/auditor-general-speaks-to-standard","title":{"rendered":"Auditor General speaks to Standard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. <\/strong><\/span><b>Auditor General Modou Ceesay said the National Audit Office\u2019s transparency and unwavering integrity in ensuring that public funds are judiciously utilised will not be compromised.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Ceesay replaced Karamba Touray, whose distinguished public service career as auditor general has earned him a reputation as a candid worker, reflecting the unbending virtues of the traditional professional civil servant now rare. Following Ceesay\u2019s appointment, concerns were raised about whether he would turn into a poodle controlled by No. 1 Marina and compromise the brilliant work that the NAO has done over the past 10 years under Mr Touray.<\/p>\n<p>But speaking in an exclusive recently at his office, Ceesay said he was aware of the tremendous work done by his predecessor, and he is committed to building on that to improve the work of the NAO. He said the NAO will continue to publish audit reports the moment they are discussed at the National Assembly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese are public documents, so nothing will change in that direction. We will sustain that transparency or even promote greater transparency because our vision is to enable effective transparency and accountability. We will continue our efforts to make our work transparent, and we will be following through on the gains that have been solidified in that direction. I can assure you that once reports are discussed at the National Assembly, they will be published online,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Ceesay said as part of efforts to improve NAO\u2019s effectiveness, an amendment bill has been tabled at the National Assembly to give the office greater autonomy and provide clarity on all its powers, including the power to surcharge.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Amendment Bill also contains areas that would help the NAO remove itself from issues that have been legacy challenges, for example, the pre-audit of pensions, because it affects our independence. It will also provide clarity on the term limit of the board and the like,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou may even notice during the constitution review process that one of the recommendations was for the National Audit Office, Independent Electoral Commission, and Ombudsman to have operational autonomy and independence in the execution of their functions because they have a critical role that includes reviewing everybody, including the executive, judiciary, and the National Assembly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Ceesay added that a lot of audit backlogs have been cleared, and currently they are editing the 2021\u20132022 government accounts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is tremendous, and effective from March, we will be doing current year auditing. All this was achieved thanks to efforts by the NAO, Ministry of Finance, and Accountant General\u2019s Office,\u201d he revealed.<\/p>\n<p>Technology<\/p>\n<p>Ceesay said NAO has introduced a new audit technology.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can use the tool to computerise our audit programmes to reduce our dependency on manual or working papers. We now have systems that can be used to back up our documentation for easy reference and quality assurance because you now have a system that documents your audit process to allow for review,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<p>Challenges<\/p>\n<p>Mr Ceesay said although his office has made \u201ca lot of efforts to improve effectiveness, funding has been a constraint\u201d, adding that NAO needs more resources to be able to build on its staff capacity to meet audit demands on time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe other challenge is access to records and personnel,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>He commended the National Assembly for \u201ctaking a giant step towards ensuring accountability and making the work of NAO relevant\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\">Gambia<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. Auditor General Modou Ceesay said the National Audit Office\u2019s transparency and unwavering integrity in ensuring that public funds are judiciously utilised will not be compromised. Ceesay replaced Karamba Touray, whose distinguished public service career as auditor general has earned him a reputation as a candid worker, reflecting the unbending virtues of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":53957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[2355,2361,260],"class_list":["post-53958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-gambia","tag-gambia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Auditor General speaks to Standard - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Auditor General Modou Ceesay said the National Audit Office\u2019s transparency and unwavering integrity in ensuring that ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/auditor-general-speaks-to-standard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Auditor General speaks to Standard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Auditor General Modou Ceesay said the National Audit Office\u2019s transparency and unwavering integrity in ensuring that ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/auditor-general-speaks-to-standard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-29T18:24:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2024\/02\/sm_1709216304.587531.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2074\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"905\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/auditor-general-speaks-to-standard#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/auditor-general-speaks-to-standard\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Auditor General speaks to Standard\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-29T18:24:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/auditor-general-speaks-to-standard\"},\"wordCount\":581,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/auditor-general-speaks-to-standard#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2024\/02\/sm_1709216304.587531.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Gambia\",\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/auditor-general-speaks-to-standard#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/auditor-general-speaks-to-standard\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/auditor-general-speaks-to-standard\",\"name\":\"Auditor General speaks to Standard - 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