Authorities of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) have actually appealed for prolonged period to be able to finish their continuous unique audit and to come back for submission of their audited accounts and monetary declarations before members of the Finance and Public Accounts Committee (FPAC) of the National Assembly.
The IEC authorities made this attract FPAC on Monday, 6May 2024, throughout their look before members of the Committee for the discussion of their yearly activity report and audited monetary declarations for analysis, factor to consider and adoption by FPAC.
At the beginning of the user interface, the Chairperson of FPAC Hon. Alhagie S.Darboe, asked authorities of the IEC to discuss the factor that caused the non-submission of their reports and in action, the Chairperson of the IEC, Alieu Moumar Njai, informed FPAC that the auditors are presently auditing the election body and “that is why we are advocating more time, so that they will have the ability to conclude the auditing workout and we send our reports”.
The Chief Executive Officer of the IEC, SambujangNjie, likewise informed members of FPAC that it is because of the unique audit workout being presently performed by the National Audit Office, that avoided their external auditors from beginning their audit, “as an outcome of which the Commission is appealing humbly and kindly asking for more time, and as soon as NAO finishes their unique audit on the IEC, the external auditors will begin as quickly as possible”. He even more described that they have actually currently contracted the services of an external Audit company call HAD and CO, and they are waiting on the Commission to call them to start the audit workout.
“At the minute, we have a continuous audit workout presently continuous at the IEC by NAO which began in January and already, this audit workout is not yet total,” he stated.
At this point, FPAC Chairperson Darboe put it to the authorities of the IEC that the submission of reports to the Committee is approved by the constitution which the stated unique audit might not be of interest to them. He stated if it has to do with the yearly reports of the IEC, the IEC can clarify that, however he does not understand how the problem of this unique audit is linked to the submission of their yearly reports.
On this note, CEO Njie clarified that the IEC is quite mindful of the reality that they should send their yearly reports and audited monetary accounts to FPAC, which they have actually sent their activity reports as much as the year 2021, and are entrusted the years 2022 and 2023.
“We began to deal with them and even call the auditors after their August 2023 appearance.We engaged our auditors and they were to begin the audit workout however NAO was available in to state they are federal government auditors and deserve to examine every federal government organization,” CEO Njie stated.
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“Once public funds have actually been utilized, we are bound to be investigated and thus they are federal government auditors who need to examine. In the past, they were contracting this service to external auditors, and the IEC got them and auditing began,” CEO Njie informed FPAC.
He included that this is why the activity reports for 2022 and 2023 are not finished, whilst the activity report for 2022 remains in collection phase.
“We are simply interesting this committee to offer us time to draw out the activity and audit reports of the external auditors as quickly as NAO is prepared with us,” he stated.
At this moment, NAO Officials validated to FPAC that they are performing an unique audit workout on the IEC about the costs on election durations for the year 2022 and 2023, and they are wanting to print out the management letter as their reply, so that they can complete the report at the end of the month.However, he stated at no time was it concurred that the activity and audit report by their external auditors will be placed on stop.
Consequently, it was dealt with that NAO can send their report on the unique audit workout to FPAC, whilst the IEC sends their report on or before 30thSeptember 2024, and the Committee will ask the IEC to come back in October 2024 for the discussion of their activity reports and audited monetary declarations.