Lawyer Patrick Gomez, the Deputy Lead Counsel of the Local Government Commission of Inquiry has accused Basse Area Council’s former Acting Director of Finance Lamin Suso of robbing the future of the Council by misusing the funds and diverting them for his personal use and benefit.
“You and the CEO take the Basse Area Council as your home. You do not follow the procedure. You do everything under the carpet” Lawyer Patrick Gomez told Lamin Suso.
Lamin Suso has been accused of receiving council funds from revenue collectors working for the council and yet, could not account for the monies he took from them.
Suso, together with members of the Finance Unit of the Basse Area Council jointly withdrew over 51 Million Dalasi. The auditors said they could not account for this huge monies. Earlier, Ndabah Krubally, the Cashier of the Council admitted that he withdrew over 35 Million Dalasi. However, Ndabah said the withdrawals were made based on the instructions of Lamin Suso and the CEO Ousman Touray. When asked how and where the monies were spent, Ndabah Krubally said when he withdrawal from the bank he gives the cash to the Finance Director and the CEO. In some instances, Ndabah Krubally said he deposits the council’s funds into the business account of Director of Finance Lamin Suso. Ndabah said Lamin Suso would prepare vouchers on his own and claim for refunds from the Council for pre-finances he made. Ndabah added that Suso would not provide evidence other than the voucher.
Suso, when he came expressed disappointment in Ndabah Krubally saying Ndabah’s testimony was wrong. Ndabah said one of his responsibilities was preparing vouchers. He testified that the vouchers that Lamin Suso prepared were not capable of believing because they were prepared after all those transactions were made. He informed the Commission that he did not prepare those vouchers.
“Lamin Suso will prepare his own voucher and make claim for refund. He will not involve me until there is money when he will bring his voucher and start making claims for refund,” Ndabah Krubally said.
On Day 4 of Lamin Suso’s appearance before the Local Government Commission of Inquiry, Suso was taken by surprised regarding huge deposits made into his personal. Different individuals made huge deposits into his personal account bearing the name of his business – Alatentu Agency. Lamin Suso said he was the one who gave those individuals money to deposit those funds into the Alatentu Account.
“What is the source of these monies,” Lawyer Patrick Gomez asked.
“I cannot recall,” Lamin Suso answered.
“You cannot recall the sources of all these funds,” Lawyer Gomez asked again.
“I cannot recall,” Lamin Suso restated.
“When I ask you the source you repeatedly say I cannot recall. You are saying you cannot recall any of these deposits,” Lawyer Gomez asked.
“Yes, I cannot recall,” Lamin Suso.
Lawyer Gomez took time to highlight some of the transactions where individuals deposited monies in Suso’s Alatentu account at EcoBank.
In March 2021, which was one month after Lamin Suso commenced work at the Basse Area Council, one Baboucar Suso deposited 90 Thousand Dalasi and one Mamud Comma deposited 64 Thousand Dalasi in the Alatentu Account. In the same month, March of 2021, Lamin Suso personally deposited 50 Thousand Dalasi and one Muhammed Ceesay deposited 138 Thousand Dalasi in the same account. In the same month, March 2021, there were deposits of 19 Thousand 2 Hundred Dalasis and another 42 Thousand Dalasi.
“You can’t still tell us the source?” Lawyer Patrick Gomez asked.
“I cannot recall the source,” Suso answered.
The Lawyer told the witness that it was not possible to get these huge funds into his business account for the same month, March 2021 when he had earlier testified that his business was not operational. Lamin Suso said sometimes he used to receive loans from his friends.
“Sometimes I borrow from my friends,” Lamin Suso said.
“Who? Tell us their names,” Lawyer Gomez asked.
“I cannot recall,” Lamin Suso answered.
“Will it be fair to say these were council funds?” Lawyer Patrick Gomez asked.
“That is incorrect,” Lamin Suso replied.
“Where are these funds from?” Lawyer Gomez asked again.
“From myself and people I do transactions with with,” Lamin Suso answered.
“Monies were withdrawn from the Council accounts and deposited into your account,” Lawyer Gomez told Lamin Suso.
“Yes,” Suso answered.
Suso claimed that he used to pre-finance some of the council activities and some of those withdrawals from the council accounts and deposits into his business account were refunds.
“It has never happened,” Lawyer Gomez said.
“It happened,” Lamin Suso answered.
“What procedure did you follow?” Lawyer Gomez asked.
“It happened between me and the CEO,” the witness replied.
“You and the CEO are the problems of the Council,” Lawyer Gomez said.
“I will take full responsibility,” Suso replied.
The Lawyer confronted Lamin Suso with the testimony of Ndabah Krubally, who tested that Lamin Suso did not pre-finance council activities.
“It used to happen between me and the CEO,” Lamin Suso said.
Lamin Suso said Ndabah Krubally was not involved in those discussions.
“It used to happen between me and the CEO. We used to do it under the carpet. We know there were risk. We know it was wrong,” Lamin Suso said.
“So you and the CEO used to do this under the carpet?” Lawyer Gomez asked.
“Yes, we used to do it under the carpet. We used to raise cheques in Ndabah’s name to withdraw for my refund” Lamin Suso answered.
“You keep it under the carpet it was wrong,” Lawyer Gomez said.
“Yes,” the witness answered
“Ndabah Krubally, the cashier, said he was not aware of the pre-finance,” Lawyer Gomez said.
“Yes, he was not aware,” Lamin Suso said.
“Nothing pass the desk of the Cashier and he did not sign anything,” Lawyer Gomez said.
“Yes,” Lamin Suso answered.
At this point, Lamin Suso said his friend that used to give him money were Abdoulie Saidykhan and Lamin Keita. He was asked to provide the details of these friends. However, Abdoulie Saidykhan had earlier testified before the Commission.
At this point, Commissioner Oreme E. Joiner admonished the witness about the crime of Money Laundering. He said the witness, Lamin Suso, cannot continue saying he does not know the source of the money but he was using the money in his engagements.
“You don’t know the source of the money, but you were issuing cheques and using the money,” Commissioner Joiner told the witness.
The witness did not react to the advise as he was silent.
At this point, Lawyer Patrick Gomez told the witness that he (Lamin Suso) was richer than the BASSE AREA COUNCIL.
“Indirectly, yes,” the witness answered.
When asked what he meant by indirectly, Lamin Suso said he was only pre-financing the Council’s activities but he was not richer than the Council.
During question and answer, Lamin Suso at this point changed his earlier statement saying Ndabah Krubally was aware of the pre-finances he made. He added that the former Chairman of the Basse Area Council, Foday Danjo, was aware of the pre-finances he was making for Council activities.
“Yourself, the CEO, the Chairman, and Ndabah Krubally did this under the carpet,” Lawyer Gomez said.
“Yes,” the witness answered.
The system audit conducted by the Internal Audit Directorate indicated that Lamin Suso alone withdre over 4 Million Dalasi from the various accounts of the Basse Area Council.
“Are you denying this?” Lawyer Gomez asked.
“Yes,” Lamin Suso answered.
“Which part are you denying?” Lawyer Gomez asked.
The explanation Lamin Suso provided was that the withdrawals at Reliance Financial Service was a joint withdrawal by the CEO and himself.
Lawyer Gomez said the query does not make sense because whether he jointly withdrew it with the CEO or not, it was a withdrawal he did. The witness agreed.
He said the total withdrawals he did personally was 3.3 Million as opposed to the 4.1 Million Dalasi the auditors stated.
“Do you have evidence to substantiate this 3.3 Million Dalasi you claim?” Lawyer Gomez asked.
“No,” Lamin Suso replied.?
Regarding the overpayment made to Green Vision International for the construction of Baja Kunda Bridge, the auditors noted that the Basse Area Council made an overpayment of 2.6 Million Dalasi.
“This was a wrong transaction, but there was reconciliation,” Suso said.
Suso testified further that the information was provided to auditors, butbhe was surprosee that the auditors said it was not given to them.
When asked who have the auditors the information, he said it was Ndabah Krubally. But he was informed that Ndabah Krubally has denied that during his testimony. The agreed sum for the contract was 3.9 Million but the Basse Area Council paid Green Vision International 5.9 Million Dalasi. Despite the overpayment made, the auditors noted that Green Vision International was still requesting for outstanding payments.
Suso said the calculation of the auditors arriving at the overpayment of 2.6 Million Dalasi was wrong, saying the overpayment was supposed to be 92 Thousand Dalasi.
“Was there overpayment?” Lawyer Patrick Gomez asked.
“Yes,” Lamin Suso replied.
“Was Green Vision requesting for another payment?” Lawyer Goked asked.
“Yes,” Suso said.
Lamin Suso said it was his decision together with the CEO to overpay Green Vision. He added that Yaya Ceesay was in that meeting. The reason for the overpaying Green Vision according to Lamin Suso was to get money for salary.
“You overpaid Green Vision to get money for salary?” Lawyer Gomez asked.
“By then that was the only way out,” Suso said.
When asked what he meant, Lamin Suso could provide answer to hw question.
On how Green Vision refunded the money to the council, Lamin Suso transferred 1.9 Million Dalasi to the Basse Area Council Trust Bank Account and the remainder was 1.9 Million Dalasi. He stated that the outstanding fee at the time was Seven Hundred and Sixty-Four Thousand Dalasi (D764,000). From the outstanding money, Lamin Suso said he received cash (Three Hundred and Ninety-Two Thousand Dalasi) from Green Vision and part of it was transferred to his Alatentu account.
Lamin Suso admitted that after making the transfer to Green Vision he called and informed them about the overpayment and began requesting the money from them.
When asked why the money was paid into his account, Lamin Suso said the council’s accounts were indebted and the money would have sink if sent in them. He added that his business account was the alternative. Lawyer Patrick Gomez informed him that the council accounts were not in the negative.
“Did you take loan in a all the council accounts?” Lawyer Gomez asked.
“No,” Lamin Suso answered.
He was asked why the funds were not transferred in the other council accounts, but Lamin Suso said at the time “We were not comfortable to do the transfer in council accounts.”
“You comfortably transferred the money into your account when the council has 5 accounts?” Lawyer Gomez asked.
“Myself and the CEO decided to do that,” Lamin Suso said.
In turn, Green Vision gave the Basse Area Council 300 Thousand as corporate social responsible for a borehole project. The Finance Director asked Green Vision to transfer the money into Ndabah Krubally’s personal account. Ndabah Krubally is the Cashier of the Council. Lamin Suso said it was for 1 by 6 salary payments. However, Ndabah Krubally earlier said the money was not meant for 1 by 6 because he withdrew the money and gave it to the Director of Finance and the CEO. However, Lamin Suso insisted that it was for 1 by 6 for the Tobaski. Ndabah Krubally said Lamin Suso told him that it was a “kickback” from Green Vision but Lamin Suso denied this evidence.
Commissioner Alagie Sillah asked the witness whether a borehole was dug but Lamin Suso said it was not. Lamin Suso said the money was spent on 1 by 6 for the 2021 Tobaski instead of the borehole.
When pressed by the Chairperson of the Commission, Jainaba Bah, that the spending was wrong because the money was meant for capital investment and not recurrent expenditures like salary.
“It was wrong. I agree with you,” Lamin Suso said.
Commissioner Oreme Joiner told the witness that he was appointed in February 2021 and by July of the same year the Council was bankrupt. He asked whether that was not awful, but the witness decided not to react to the question.
Lamin Suso again said the auditors were wrong when they stated that he did not provide them vouchers to substantiate the transactions.
“I provided the auditors the vouchers,” the witness said.
When asked did he personally gave the aduitors the vouchers, Lamin Suso said he did not give the auditors the vouchers but his junior, Ndabah Krubally gave the auditors. Lamin Suso was confronted with Ndabah’s testimony that he never provided the auditors the vouchers. Suso still insisted that Ndabah gave the auditors the vouchers even though Ndabah Krubally testified that he did not give the auditors the vouchers.
Lamin Suso was asked to provide the vouchers he claimed that were prepared in relation to koneiss he received from the revenue collectors of the council. The vouchers were critically looked into.
“You will agree with me that the vouchers you present have very serious defects,” Lawyer Gomez said.
“Yes,” Lamin Suso said.
Suso said, that depsite being at home while under suspension, he still has some of the vouchers of the Council. He explained that he kept them in preparation for his appearance before the Commission and he did not inform the Council that he was in possession of the vouchers.
Suso admitted and agreed with the auditors that there was high risk of mismanagement of funds and fraud because the vouchers had serries of gross defects.
The auditors said the Director of Finance did not provide them with the financial statements of the Council, but he said the auditors were wrong. After question and answer with Lawyer Patrick Gomez, the witness said he did not present the statements because what he had was draft for 2021 and 2022.
The witness said he did not have bank reconciliation for 2021 and 2022. The reason for not doing bank reconciliation was because the system does not capture that. He admitted that lack of bank reconciliation has the risk of serious financial errors.
“I am concerned about the period when you and the CEO were mismanaging public funds thinking that you were in your homes. Do not drag us to 2019,” Lawyer Gomez said.
“Ok,” the witness answered.
Lamin Suso admitted that he did not prepare financial statements in 2021 and 2022.
“Did you do bank reconciliation?” Lawyer Gomez asked.
“No,” Lamin Suso answered.
“How will we know how you spend public funds?” Lawyer Gomez asked.
The witness said he was doing it on his own.
“That’s Lamin Suso’s theory. You did not follow due procedure,” Lawyer Gomez said.
The witness said he was not doing bank reconciliation but he was using his own method to do it.
The auditors found that Lamin Suso as the Finance Director did not keep an updated cashbook in line with the financial rules provided by law.
Lamin Suso said the cashbook was available and he has a soft copy. He added that he gave it to the auditors. He testified that the auditors decided to say that he did not provide them the cashbook when he actually gave them.
The proceeding will continue today, 16 October 2023.
