By Madi Jobarteh
We have noted the public statement by the Gambia Police Force issued on 15 October 2024 that they are investigating the Independent Electoral Commission following queries raised in a special audit by the National Audit Office. While we are yet to access a copy of this special audit report from either the Auditor General or the IGP, we welcome this investigation. We will continue to monitor the process to its logical conclusion. In this regard, we request that both the Auditor General and the Inspector General make available the report to the public, as citizens have a right to know what is in the report.
Having welcomed this investigation, we are concerned that many other audit reports by the Auditor General have not become the subject of police investigation. These audit reports concern a wide range of institutions and issues that highlight public institutions’ and officials’ blatant disregard for laws, regulations, and legal advice, thereby causing huge financial losses to the country.
For example, the Auditor General audited the Government’s accounts in 2017, 2018, and 2019 and found serious cases of irregular procurement, improper bank account management, unpresented supporting documentation, unaccounted revenue, noncompliance with regulations, weak internal controls, and loss of public monies, among several other anomalies. These are clear legal, management, and accounting malpractices. Yet we have not seen the IGP announce investigations after each annual audit of Government accounts.
Similarly, the NAO audited the diplomatic and service passport scandal in terms of the procedures during application, approval, and issuance between 2017 and 2019. Their conclusion was that the procedures had severe deficiencies. Despite the serious findings, the IGP could not successfully prosecute and hold anyone accountable for wrongfully giving national diplomatic passports to unauthorized and ineligible people.
The NAO also audited the multimillion-dalasi construction of eco-lodges under the administration of the GTBoard between 2018 and 2021. They found immense lapses in the procurement process and noted that due to these deviations from regulations, the objectives of the camps would not be achieved. As predicted, it is evident that the eco-lodge project was a massive cesspool of failure and corruption to the point that it even became a subject of investigation by the Public Petitions Committee of the National Assembly. Yet the IGP has never announced or opened investigations into GTBoard and the Ministry of Tourism.
Then came the issue of the obnoxious Securiport, which was also audited between 2019 and 2021. Again, the Auditor General found that the Office of the President, Ministry of Interior and Immigration Department, failed to adhere to the legal advice provided by the Ministry of Justice that the contract was risky for the country. Instead, they signed the Securiport contract, a scam revealed further in a Malagen report in 2023. It is now apparent that Securiport is a severe damage to tourism and the economy. However, the IGP never opened investigations into Securiport.
The Auditor General also audited the COVID funds in 2022 regarding how the procurement and distribution of medical and food items were conducted across the country during the pandemic. Their findings showed a glaring disregard for laws and regulations, missing documents, inappropriate procurement, and inappropriate contracting processes, among several other anomalies, causing a huge loss of millions of dalasi. Yet the IGP has yet to announce investigations into the COVID funds.
In the audit of the more than two-billion-dollar Dalasi Banjul Road rehabilitation project between 2019 and 2021, the Auditor General again found total disregard for laws and regulations in the tendering process. Instead, the entire contract was single-sourced, thereby causing the country to lose. In this matter, the IGP also never announced an investigation.
Considering the preceding, the announcement by the IGP to investigate the IEC because of an audit raises serious questions about the impartiality, professionalism, and efficiency of the Gambia Police. As an institution set up to ensure transparency and accountability within the Government, we urge the IGP to review his position regarding audit reports from the National Audit Office. We are aware with deep concern that several audit queries from the Auditor General have been sent to the Police to investigate without any progress. The National Assembly also submits resolutions that require investigations to the IGP, yet the public is not informed of their progress.
The Constitution has imposed clear obligations and powers on the Auditor General, the Inspector General of Police, and the National Assembly to ensure transparency and accountability within the public sector. The Constitution and other laws of the Gambia establish clear-cut rules that determine how public institutions and officials must abide by the law in managing public resources and delivering public services. Hence, there is no grey area for mismanagement, corruption, or underperformance.
Therefore, one of the IGP’s critical functions and purposes is to ensure that public property is used and managed according to law. This function must be executed impartially, professionally, and consistently without ill will or favor. The EF Small Centre, therefore, calls on the IGP to open investigations into all other audit reports in which anomalies have been identified.
