Malamin Bojang, former chairman of Kerewan Area Council, yesterday testified before the LG Commission, shedding light on the council’s procurement practices and internal controls when he was in office.
Bojang revealed that during his tenure, the council had an internal auditor, a lady, but she was later sent on attachment to the Accountant General’s Department for six months due to a capacity gap.
“During her absence, the council was doing payments, but there was no auditing on prior and post approvals,” he told the commission.
When asked about the council’s annual revenue assessment, Bojang said that the former CEO, Samba Leigh, used to establish a team each year to conduct the assessment.
However, Lead Counsel Patrick Gomez counsel disagreed with Bojang’s assertion that the same people who collected revenue also did the assessment, with Bojang responding, “sometimes it does happen.”
The counsel also questioned Bojang about the council’s Standing Orders, as provided in the Local Government Act.
Bojang replied that the council did not have Standing Orders. Furthermore, when asked about the threshold for approving payments or expenditure, Bojang said there was none, adding that the thresholds ‘were the council and the chairman.
Bojang testified that there existed a contracts committee, and in 2022, there were 626 transactions valued at D9,770,545.36, with 615 done through single-sourcing and 12 through request for quotations.
He admitted that the procurements were not competitive, saying, “there was no competition, no market survey, and no transparency.” But he added that these issues are often raised during meetings.
But Councel Gomez disagreed, arguing that the procurements did not follow due process and there was no open tender.
The witness admitted that he did not address queries in the compliance report, saying, “an effective contracts committee in the council would have addressed the concerns in the compliance review reports and ensured that they do not repeat again”.
The counsel also raised a case when the procurement officer, Fatoumata Jaiteh, wrote to the CEO and copied the chairman and directors informing them that she would stop filing backdated invoices because it was not proper and wrong.
Bojang admitted receiving such a letter after which he said he called a meeting to discuss the issue. He could not however produce any minutes of that meeting prompting the counsel to argue that the meeting was not formal.
Lead Counsel Gomez put it to Bojang that the letter of the procurement officer was informing him about corrupt practices in the council, and he was supposed to perform oversight over the council staff, including the CEO.
Bojang agreed that he had an obligation to address her concerns but failed to do so.
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