{"id":92627,"date":"2025-12-24T16:30:05","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T16:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/audit-reveals-oversight-issues-in-mining-rental-fees"},"modified":"2025-12-24T17:21:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T17:21:00","slug":"audit-reveals-oversight-issues-in-mining-rental-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/audit-reveals-oversight-issues-in-mining-rental-fees","title":{"rendered":"Audit Reveals Oversight Issues in Mining Rental Fees"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. <\/strong><\/span><b>The 2024 Auditor General\u2019s Report has raised concerns about the Geological Department\u2019s handling of mining license fees, citing weak verification practices that could be undermining the accuracy of government revenue from surface rentals.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>According to the report, the department lacks sufficient documentation to verify the annual surface rental fees paid by mining companies, casting doubt on both the amounts collected and the liabilities reflected in the government\u2019s financial statements.<\/p>\n<p>Auditors found that sketch plans submitted by the Geological Department for Gach Mining Company Limited\u2014documents used to calculate annual rental charges\u2014contained neither dimensions nor a defined scale. As a result, the auditors said, it was impossible to determine the precise land area covered by the mining license, making accurate fee assessments unachievable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWithout the sketch plans, we cannot verify that the surface rental payables recorded in the financial statements are accurate,\u201d the report stated.<\/p>\n<p>The audit also identified underpayments by Sino Majilack Jalbak Investment and Development Company Limited (SMJ). Between 2019 and 2024, the company paid a total of GMD 278,000, an amount the auditors said fell short of its contractual obligations. When the 2024 rental fee is added, the total outstanding balance owed to the government rises to GMD 823,923.72.<\/p>\n<p>Gach Mining Company was also cited for failing to pay surface rental fees for 2022 and 2023. The Auditor General recommended that the Geological Department recover all outstanding amounts and submit evidence of recovery for verification.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond mining rentals, the report highlighted broader accounting concerns. It found that the inclusion of outstanding imprests in the Statement of Outstanding Commitments\u2014totaling GMD 7,284,191\u2014created a misleading picture of future spending obligations. Auditors said this practice overstated the statement and weakened its reliability.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe issue remains unresolved, and maintaining outstanding imprests as a commitment contravenes the Financial Regulations and the IPSAS conceptual framework,\u201d the report concluded.<\/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 2024 Auditor General\u2019s Report has raised concerns about the Geological Department\u2019s handling of mining license fees, citing weak verification practices that could be undermining the accuracy of government revenue from surface rentals. According to the report, the department lacks sufficient documentation to verify the annual surface rental fees paid by mining [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":92626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-92627","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>Audit Reveals Oversight Issues in Mining Rental Fees - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The 2024 Auditor General\u2019s Report has raised concerns about the Geological Department\u2019s handling of mining license fe ...\" \/>\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\/audit-reveals-oversight-issues-in-mining-rental-fees\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Audit Reveals Oversight Issues in Mining Rental Fees\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The 2024 Auditor General\u2019s Report has raised concerns about the Geological Department\u2019s handling of mining license fe ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/audit-reveals-oversight-issues-in-mining-rental-fees\" \/>\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=\"2025-12-24T16:30:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-24T17:21:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/sm_1766584198.423377.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\/audit-reveals-oversight-issues-in-mining-rental-fees#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/audit-reveals-oversight-issues-in-mining-rental-fees\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Audit Reveals Oversight Issues in Mining Rental Fees\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-24T16:30:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-24T17:21:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/audit-reveals-oversight-issues-in-mining-rental-fees\"},\"wordCount\":320,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/audit-reveals-oversight-issues-in-mining-rental-fees#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/12\/sm_1766584198.423377.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/audit-reveals-oversight-issues-in-mining-rental-fees#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/audit-reveals-oversight-issues-in-mining-rental-fees\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/audit-reveals-oversight-issues-in-mining-rental-fees\",\"name\":\"Audit Reveals Oversight Issues in Mining Rental Fees - 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