{"id":88284,"date":"2025-10-18T17:12:46","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T17:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/weak-oversight-in-mining-sector-causes-gmd-80-million-gap"},"modified":"2025-10-19T08:29:28","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T08:29:28","slug":"weak-oversight-in-mining-sector-causes-gmd-80-million-gap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/weak-oversight-in-mining-sector-causes-gmd-80-million-gap","title":{"rendered":"Weak Oversight in Mining Sector Causes GMD 80 Million Gap"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. <\/strong><\/span><b>The 2023 Management Letter of the Auditor General has revealed significant lapses in the management of government revenue from mining and quarrying activities, highlighting weak oversight and underreported earnings.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>According to the report, the Department of Geology failed to conduct quarterly price reviews on heavy mineral concentrates, also known as black sand. As a result, the sales price for these minerals has remained unchanged between $125 and $133 per metric tonne since the original agreement in 2017.<\/p>\n<p>Auditors also noted that license files were not provided when requested, making it difficult to verify compliance with agreements. Additionally, there was no evidence that royalty rates used by the department were formally approved, and licensees failed to make payments for training and institutional support, as required under their agreements.<\/p>\n<p>These lapses contributed to an understatement of quarrying royalties totalling GMD 79,949,720 in the financial statements, raising concerns about revenue leakage and transparency in the extractive sector.<\/p>\n<p>The audit also flagged irregularities in budget management. These included unbudgeted expenditures of GMD 12,273,034.83, underutilized budget lines totalling GMD 3,039,628, and a lack of alignment between the National Development Plan and the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework.<\/p>\n<p>Particularly concerning was the disbursement of GMD 32.5 million to suppliers of the Office of the President (OP) without supporting procurement documentation. The funds, initially issued as a soft loan to the OIC, were used to settle vendor payments outside the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS), with the remaining balance paid to a Security Advice Account controlled by OP.<\/p>\n<p>Auditors urged government ministries and departments to strengthen oversight, enforce compliance with agreements, and ensure transparent reporting of revenue and expenditures. The findings underscore systemic weaknesses in financial management and the urgent need for tighter controls to safeguard public resources.<\/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 2023 Management Letter of the Auditor General has revealed significant lapses in the management of government revenue from mining and quarrying activities, highlighting weak oversight and underreported earnings. According to the report, the Department of Geology failed to conduct quarterly price reviews on heavy mineral concentrates, also known as black sand. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":88283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-88284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","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>Weak Oversight in Mining Sector Causes GMD 80 Million Gap - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The 2023 Management Letter of the Auditor General has revealed significant lapses in the management of government rev ...\" \/>\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\/weak-oversight-in-mining-sector-causes-gmd-80-million-gap\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Weak Oversight in Mining Sector Causes GMD 80 Million Gap\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The 2023 Management Letter of the Auditor General has revealed significant lapses in the management of government rev ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/weak-oversight-in-mining-sector-causes-gmd-80-million-gap\" \/>\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=\"2025-10-18T17:12:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-10-19T08:29:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/sm_1760798775.175283.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\/weak-oversight-in-mining-sector-causes-gmd-80-million-gap#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/weak-oversight-in-mining-sector-causes-gmd-80-million-gap\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Weak Oversight in Mining Sector Causes GMD 80 Million Gap\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-18T17:12:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-10-19T08:29:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/weak-oversight-in-mining-sector-causes-gmd-80-million-gap\"},\"wordCount\":303,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/weak-oversight-in-mining-sector-causes-gmd-80-million-gap#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/10\/sm_1760798775.175283.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/weak-oversight-in-mining-sector-causes-gmd-80-million-gap#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/weak-oversight-in-mining-sector-causes-gmd-80-million-gap\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/weak-oversight-in-mining-sector-causes-gmd-80-million-gap\",\"name\":\"Weak Oversight in Mining Sector Causes GMD 80 Million Gap - 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