SANNIQUELLIE, Nimba − A three-member audit team of the General Auditing Commission is in Nimba to conduct a compliance audit of how past county administrations handled development funds from July 1, 2018 to December 31, 2023.
This fulfills Superintendent Kou Meapeh Gono’s promise to audit her predecessors, D. Dorr Cooper and Nelson Korquoi.
The team of auditors revealed that the audit will focus on budget and financial management and reporting, personnel, procurement, fixed assets, inventories, revenue income, receivables, and payable management.
Appearing on Radio Nimba, Audit Manager Albert B. Gibson said the audit would also include investigating institutions, companies, or contractors that implemented projects earmarked during previous county council sittings.
He noted that the team would begin its work this week. He added that the process would take the auditors across the nine electoral districts for a head count of all the Ministry of Internal Affairs employees in the county and to verify them on the payroll and trace government assets assigned to them in those places.
Gibson explained that while auditors lack prosecuting powers, the audit team can recommend to the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission for in-depth investigation and prosecution if any fraud is discovered.
“We did not come to base our work on rumors,” he said. “We are professional people. We stand by our core values. Independence, objectivity, and professionalism are our core values; we stand by that. Even though you will hear information here and there, but we deal with evidence. Substantial evidence is what we follow.”
He promised to deliver a professional audit and that people indicted would be subject to investigations.
“Be at peace; we are not here to arrest anybody,” Gibson cautioned. “We are not police people. We are not putting anyone in jail; we are here to work with the old and new administrations so that we can get sufficient information.”
According to the audit team’s timeline, the physical verification exercise kicked off in Sanniquellie Mahn District on Thursday, August 14, and will end on August 24 in Karnplay.
Superintendent Gono promised to disclose the results of the audit: “In no time, the people of Nimba will see a large PowerPoint presentation of what happened to their resources, not because we want to witch hunt people, [but] primarily because we want to know what went wrong and we want to learn going forward what we need to do better.”
Featured photo courtesy of Shalon Gonlor/Radio Nimba
