{"id":83944,"date":"2025-08-13T06:48:43","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T06:48:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/commission-questions-ex-basse-council-chair-on-d51m-withdrawal"},"modified":"2025-08-13T06:55:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T06:55:07","slug":"commission-questions-ex-basse-council-chair-on-d51m-withdrawal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/commission-questions-ex-basse-council-chair-on-d51m-withdrawal","title":{"rendered":"Commission Questions Ex-Basse Council Chair on D51M Withdrawal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. <\/strong><\/span><b>The Local Government Commission of Inquiry on Tuesday questioned former Basse Area Council Chairman, Foday Danjo, over the withdrawal of D51,169,000 by the council\u2019s former finance director, Lamin Sosseh.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Testifying via an online platform, Danjo said he only became aware of the withdrawals after a system audit was conducted.<\/p>\n<p>Lead Counsel Patrick Gomez pressed him on why he had not requested regular account statements during his tenure.<\/p>\n<p>Danjo maintained that the general council had instructed the chief executive officer (CEO) to provide account statements, adding that while they sometimes received them, there were occasions when they did not.<\/p>\n<p>However, Counsel Gomez countered that the general council had never formally requested account statements for review purposes. Danjo disagreed, insisting that records in the council\u2019s meeting minutes would prove otherwise, although he could not recall the specific meetings where the matter was discussed.<\/p>\n<p>When asked to present evidence, Danjo said the council clerk who might have the records was no longer employed there and that he was not in contact with him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe also did not have evidence of what you are saying. Mr. Danjo, it is your responsibility to provide evidence,\u201d Counsel Gomez told him.<\/p>\n<p>Counsel Gomez further accused Danjo of failing to exercise proper oversight as chairman, which allowed Sosseh to make unauthorized withdrawals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe withdrawals made by Lamin Sosseh\u2014if you were doing your job as chairman or council you would have realized that these withdrawals were not duly authorized,\u201d Counsel Gomez put to him.In response, Danjo said the council had reported the issue to the Ministry of Local Government and hired auditors to review all accounts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCouncil paid these auditors; we accommodate and feed them so they can audit all our accounts. If we want to do fraud or corruption, we will not do that,\u201d Danjo said.<\/p>\n<p>He emphasized that the council\u2019s decision to hire auditors was driven by genuine concern, not negligence. He also rejected claims that he failed in his supervisory duties, noting that he was the political head of the council and not a signatory to any of its accounts.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Gambia<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. The Local Government Commission of Inquiry on Tuesday questioned former Basse Area Council Chairman, Foday Danjo, over the withdrawal of D51,169,000 by the council\u2019s former finance director, Lamin Sosseh. Testifying via an online platform, Danjo said he only became aware of the withdrawals after a system audit was conducted. Lead Counsel Patrick [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":83943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-83944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","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>Commission Questions Ex-Basse Council Chair on D51M Withdrawal - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Local Government Commission of Inquiry on Tuesday questioned former Basse Area Council Chairman, Foday Danjo, ove ...\" \/>\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\/commission-questions-ex-basse-council-chair-on-d51m-withdrawal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Commission Questions Ex-Basse Council Chair on D51M Withdrawal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Local Government Commission of Inquiry on Tuesday questioned former Basse Area Council Chairman, Foday Danjo, ove ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/commission-questions-ex-basse-council-chair-on-d51m-withdrawal\" \/>\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=\"2025-08-13T06:48:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-13T06:55:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/sm_1755055457.242741.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\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=\"2 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\/commission-questions-ex-basse-council-chair-on-d51m-withdrawal#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/commission-questions-ex-basse-council-chair-on-d51m-withdrawal\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Commission Questions Ex-Basse Council Chair on D51M Withdrawal\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-13T06:48:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-13T06:55:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/commission-questions-ex-basse-council-chair-on-d51m-withdrawal\"},\"wordCount\":370,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/commission-questions-ex-basse-council-chair-on-d51m-withdrawal#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/08\/sm_1755055457.242741.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/commission-questions-ex-basse-council-chair-on-d51m-withdrawal#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/commission-questions-ex-basse-council-chair-on-d51m-withdrawal\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/commission-questions-ex-basse-council-chair-on-d51m-withdrawal\",\"name\":\"Commission Questions Ex-Basse Council Chair on D51M Withdrawal - 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