Former Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC) revenue collector Mr. Basiru Taal was unable to provide the Local Government Commission of Inquiry (LGCI) with an explanation for his lack of forty-five thousand two hundred and ten dalasi in 2022.

Taal made a total collection of Four Million, Six Hundred and Fifty-four Thousand, Three Hundred and Twenty Dalasi Fifty Butut, but only submitted Four Million, Six Hundred and Nine Thousand, One Hundred and Ten Dalasi Fifty Butut, according to the KMC’s 2023 Internal Audit Report for the period 2022.

“I made a first payment of Thirty Thousand Three Hundred Dalasi and for the completion, I took a loan from the Credit Union,” Witness Taal said after informing the panel that he had paid this amount.

Nevertheless, the witness said he could not tell and that he was unaware of it when Lead Counsel Patrick Gomez questioned him about why he had the deficiency.

Counsel Gomez further informed him that he handed the money back without raising a fuss, complying with the Audit Report regarding his deficiency.

According to the witness, Internal Audit was notified of every transaction he made prior to the release of the audit report, and they never told him that he was suppressing revenue. He went on to say that the auditors receive the cash books every time.

Witness Taal explained that Fridays are known as half days and that collectors rush to make payments before 12:30 noon, claiming that this causes the shortage because they should pay the cashier before the weekend, in response to the counsel’s second question about why he has this shortage.

When Attorney Gomez questioned him about whether he spends any of the money he receives, the witness gave a negative response. He added that occasionally, it can result from a computation error.

On this point, Counsel Gomez disagreed with him. Requests for the witness’s cash books from 2018 to 2023 came from the commission. He claimed to have sent this to KMC’s internal audit. His appointment and confirmation letters were requested.

According to the witness, he began working with KMC in 1980 and left of his own volition in March 2023.

Mamie Fatou Jobe was another witness who provided testimony. She was questioned over the internal audit report from 2022, which revealed that she is short on 10,000, 600, and 50 Dalasi.

Out of the One Million, Seven Hundred and Seventy-four Dalasi that she collected for the entire year 2022, this was her shortfall.

The witness further informed the commission that this was not a shortage that was questioned because she misplaced the receipt, stating that the sum should have been Ten Thousand and Five Hundred Dalasi. She continued by saying that she gave Mamadi Jawo, the cashier, this money.

“This is exactly happened in my case—you go back to the cashier and he will write a lost receipt for you,” the woman explained.

Counsel Gomez informed her that the auditors had stated that there was a complete shortage rather than that there was a lost receipt issue.

She acknowledged that she had paid the money and that the receipt had been misplaced, but she did not dispute the auditors’ findings.

The commission decided to release her at this point. She was told, though, that they would give Mamadi Jawo a call because she had paid him this sum and he had given her a lost receipt.