The Edward Francis Small Centre for Rights and Justice expresses deep shock and outrage at the findings of the audit reports of Government accounts for the years 2021, 2022 and 2023 just released by the National Audit Office (GoTG Reports – National Audit Office, The Gambia.). The audit reports present a disturbing picture of persistent financial mismanagement, corruption, and disregard for the laws, regulations, and procedures that govern public finance. Instead of improving over time, the reports reveal a worsening trend of irregularities, weak accountability, and systemic abuse of public resources. These recurring failures undermine transparency, erode public trust, and deprive citizens of much-needed investments in essential services and national development.
In our review of the reports, we have found disturbing findings across the three years which glaringly point to misstatement and manipulation of public accounts, showing cash discrepancies exceeding one hundred and ten billion dalasi (D110B). Similarly, we found numerous instances of irregularities in debt and loans where loans worth billions of dalasi were on-lent to State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) without risk assessments, contrary to the Public Finance Act. SOEs repeatedly defaulted on repayments thus shifting the burden to taxpayers.
There is also the perennial issue of revenue leakages and corruption. For example, in the fisheries sector, vessels arrested for illegal fishing were released without fines, while over D53 million in penalties remain unpaid. In the mining sector, royalties were understated by nearly D80 million, license files went missing, and contractual obligations such as training funds were ignored.
The disregard for procurement and contract laws, major contracts including road projects, stadium renovations, and the Banquet Hall were awarded through single-sourcing or without competitive bidding in total breach of GPPA regulations. Inflated prices, duplicated payments, overpayments, and missing approvals resulted in millions of dalasi in financial loss. Ministries failed to provide procurement plans, bidding documents, or fixed asset registers thereby undermining transparency.
The auditors have also flagged payroll and human resource irregularities in which ghost workers, missing personal files, and unjustified allowances continue to drain public resources. Unearned salaries, dual salary payments, and unrecovered staff loans were also flagged repeatedly, but remain unresolved.
Consequently, budgetary abuse and fiscal indiscipline were rampant as ministries consistently exceeded cash allocations and engaged in unbudgeted spending, including D32.5 million at the Office of the President in 2023 without supporting procurement documentation. Cash management committees failed to exercise oversight, allowing hundreds of millions in overruns. Across the three years, hundreds of high-priority findings were identified, many of them recurring, showing government’s refusal to act on audit recommendations. These malpractices highlight the culture of weak oversight and non-compliance.
What are the Implications?
These findings demonstrate a culture of impunity and entrenched corruption in the management of public finances. They show total disregard for the Constitution, the Public Finance Act, Financial Regulations, and procurement laws, thereby creating systemic risks of fraud, abuse, and corruption running into tens of billions of dalasi. This tantamount to a betrayal of public trust, as funds meant for development are lost to mismanagement and corrupt practices.
These audit reports are not telling us anything new. Rather they only confirm that corruption and disregard of the law by public officials for self-enrichment are rampant across the Government. This malaise is what fuels and entrenches poverty, deprivation, inequality, high cost of living, poor social services, drugs and crime, and irregular migration (Backway) in our country thereby threatening national stability, peace, and justice. These conditions constitute gross violations of huma rights. The audit reports highlight that the fundamental challenge facing the country is the lack of political will to uphold and abide good governance principles and standards.
Call to Action
EFSCRJ is deeply outraged and demands accountability in full. Therefore, given the gravity of the malpractices highlighted in these reports, we call on Pres. Barrow to:
- Urgently investigate and prosecute all instances of fraud, corruption, and abuse of office exposed in the 2021, 2022, and 2023 audits.
- Recover all stolen or misappropriated public funds from individuals and entities responsible.
- Strengthen financial management systems to enforce compliance with the law and prevent recurrence of such irregularities.
- Ensure the National Assembly and independent oversight institutions exercise their full authority without political interference.
- Commit to full transparency by publishing corrective actions taken on each audit recommendation.
- Demonstrate full political will and commitment to combating corruption and abuse of office.
Conclusion
The consistent findings across these three years confirm that mismanagement and corruption in public finance are not isolated incidents, but systemic failures sustained by disregard for the law and absence of accountability. The Gambian people deserve better stewardship of their resources. It is time for decisive reforms, accountability, and justice to restore integrity in governance and protect public wealth.
