Part 1 of the Audit Report Breakdown for Every Gambian
For three consecutive years,2021, 2022, and 2023, the Auditor General has been sounding the alarm: billions of dalasis belonging to the people of The Gambia are missing, misused, or mismanaged.
Year after year, the Auditor General has delivered the worst possible verdict on the government’s financial statements:
Adverse Opinion – meaning the accounts are so riddled with errors, misstatements, and irregularities that they cannot be trusted.
Yet, instead of being tabled in the National Assembly for debate and accountability, these damning reports were deliberately kept from the public, hidden from the very people whose money is at stake.
As 2026 approaches, Gambians deserve to know how their taxes, donor aid, and national resources have been handled.
If memory serves me right, the last time an audit report was tabled in parliament was in 2020. Since then, President Adama Barrow’s government kept the reports hidden until mounting pressure forced their release recently.
This delay was no accident. It coincided with the unconstitutional removal of Auditor General Modou Ceesay, who resisted political pressure, and the equally unconstitutional appointment of Cherno Amadou Sowe. Citizens must ask, were these moves designed to silence the truth about how our money was being looted?
Cash That Vanished Into Thin Air
• 2021: D65 million disappeared from government accounts.
• 2022: The figure jumped to D136 million.
• 2023: A shocking D6.1 billion gap between official records and actual cash balances was found.
Imagine what D6.1 billion could have done: new hospitals, schools, roads, jobs. Instead, it evaporated.
State House Banquet Hall: A Feast of Corruption (2023)
The Office of the President oversaw a new Banquet Hall project. The auditors uncovered:
• Overpayment of D9.8 million.
• Duplicate payments worth D3.3 million.
• An air conditioner billed but never installed.
• The contractor? Alfa Media is a media company, not a construction firm.
This was not just wasteful, it was reckless.
Stadium of Scandals
The Independence Stadium should be a symbol of national pride. Instead, it became a monument to fraud:
• 2022: The Ministry of Youth and Sports awarded D75 million to CFTM Group, a marketing company with no construction experience. Another bidder offered the same work for much less but was ignored.
• 2023: Costs ballooned by D153 million, as evident in the audit report, with skipped bidding, advance payments above legal limits, and fake progress reports.
Our Seas, Their Loot
Illegal fishing is draining our country’s resources while fines vanish:
• 2021: D8.7 million in fines uncollected.
• 2022: 7 vessels caught were released without paying fines (≈D3.7M each).
• 2023: Of D53 million levied on foreign vessels, only D11 million was confirmed collected.
Foreign ships loot our waters while Gambians go hungry.
Mining Riches, Poor Governance
Black sand and quarrying royalties remain stuck at 2017 rates.
• In 2023, quarrying royalties were understated by D79.9 million.
• Training fees and institutional support payments from mining companies were ignored.
• No independent checks exist to verify exports.
Minerals leave our shores, and revenue leaks from the books.
Assets and Recoveries: The Vanishing Act
• Timber Sales (2019/2021): Proceeds from 2,393 containers worth D241 million remain unaccounted for.
• Mega Bank Sale (2023): The bank was sold for D921 million, but only D896 million was disclosed. The missing D24.4 million bypassed Treasury oversight.
• Janneh Commission (2023): The accounts never reflected at least D43.7 million in recoveries.
Public wealth is being sold at a discount or simply disappearing.
Duty Waivers: Billions in Hidden Giveaways
• 2022: Duty exemptions worth D2.89 billion hidden from accounts.
• 2023: Jah Oil unlawfully received D29 million despite not meeting eligibility rules.
Revenue meant for schools and hospitals was quietly gifted away.
The Bigger Picture
Three years of audits reveal a pattern:
• Billions are missing in cash.
• Procurement fraud in stadium and banquet hall projects, etc.
• Timber, fisheries, and mining revenues lost.
• Asset sales and duty waivers were manipulated.
While Gambians suffer rising prices and poor services, the nation’s money is drained into the pockets of the few.
Why This Matters in 2026
2026 is not just another election year; it is a reckoning. Gambians must ask:
• Where is the missing rice, timber money, fishing fines, Mega Bank balance, etc?
• Why are unqualified companies winning million-dollar contracts?
• Why are billions hidden in waivers while hospitals lack beds?
Every dalasi lost is a classroom not built, a road not paved, a family left in poverty.
A Cry for The Gambia
Kwame Nkrumah warned: “The wealth of Africa is stolen from Africa by corrupt leaders in partnership with foreign interests.”
Thomas Sankara said, “He who feeds you, controls you.”
Chinua Achebe wrote: “The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership.” Replace Nigeria with The Gambia, and the truth remains the same.
I write this with pain. This is not accounting jargon; it is daily bread stolen from our tables. It is medicine not bought, roads not built, futures destroyed.
Conclusion: Part 1 Ends, but the Story is Just Beginning
This is only Part 1 of my breakdown. I will continue to analyse and explain these reports in simple, clear terms, scandal by scandal, so that every Gambian, not just accountants or auditors, can understand how billions of dalasis disappear each year.
Stay tuned for Part 2:
I will dig deeper into road contracts, procurement fraud, and debt mismanagement, where most of our national wealth vanishes.
Because the billions they waste are our taxes, not theirs.
It is time to rise as one people and say with a single voice:
“Our taxes must serve the people, not the few.”
More shocking revelations are coming. This is just the beginning.
Written by Jallow Modou, Washington, D.C, USA
