President Adama Barrow’s office has distanced itself from missing 669 million dalasis reported by the National Audit Office summarised audit report on the government’s 2017 financial statements.

The report revealed that the government made withdrawals amounting to D669 million without approval from the Accountant General.

Former finance minister Amadou Sanneh said the reported withdrawal of the D669 million is news to him, saying throughout his time as minister he operated based on the 2017/2018 approved budget.

“The National Assembly should investigate this because if it exists like that without approval, it is criminal and the president should be subpoenaed and possibly be impeached for this because the country cannot go like this, from one case to the other. 

“This is not the way a country should be run. People should be accountable, they should be responsible,” the former finance minister said.

However, State House reacted to the ex-minister statement, adding: “The Office of the President informs the public that the headline “Ex-Finance Minister tells Assembly to Investigate OP over ‘Missing’ D669” on the front page of the Standard Newspaper on Tuesday, 26th April 2022 is misleading.

“The Ex-Finance Minister, Honourable Amadou Sanneh, is aware that the D669 million mentioned in the Audit Report of 2017 was an expenditure in 2016 when the Barrow government was not in office.”

“The National Audit Office has established that the amount in question was withdrawn in 2016 before President Adama Barrow came into office. The Audit report published recently in 2022 is a result of an audit exercise conducted in 2017.

“The Barrow administration is committed to combating corruption and will investigate any misappropriation of public funds. H.E. Adama Barrow is committed to holding public institutions, including the Office of the President, accountable,” the statement added.

Reporting by Adama Makasuba