By Buba Gagigo
The National Audit Office’s report on the financial activities of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has uncovered that the Commission disbursed allowances totaling GMD 12,719,077.53 without routing these payments through its standard payroll system.
“A payroll system is any means of paying employees, disposing employment taxes, and maintaining records of the transaction. These tasks can be accomplished via manual processes, or they can be automated with software to save time and minimize the risk of error. Review of the payment voucher files for the period 2020 to 2023 revealed that the IEC paid incentive (i.e. allowances) worth of GMD12, 719,077.53 without processing it through the normal payroll system used by the commission for the settlement of salaries and allowances,” the auditors stated.
Instead, the auditors noted, payments were processed by issuing cheques to individuals who then withdrew funds from the IEC’s accounts to distribute the allowance payments directly to staff.
The auditors highlighted that handling cash withdrawals via cheques raises the risk of fraudulent activities.
They recommended that IEC management ensure all staff allowances are processed through the payroll system in accordance with the Commission’s Accounting Procedure Manual.
In response to the audit findings, the IEC acknowledged the issue and committed to processing all future staff allowances through the payroll system, stating, “Noted. Going forward, the IEC will ensure that all allowances to staff are processed through payroll system.”
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