By Ragan M. Conteh
Members of the Parliamentary Appropriation Committee Three on Supplies, headed by Hon. Neneh Lebbie, have on Tuesday criticized the Management of the Produce Marketing Board (PMB), especially its Managing Director, Mr. Gerald Demby, for submitting what they referred to as ‘fraudulent documents’ to the Committee.
The MPs discovered during the vetting process that most of the experienced staff at PMB charged with carrying out the daily functions of the Board including the Director of Finance, Director of operations, Administrative Manager, Assistant Administrative Manager, Accounting Manager, Accounts Clerk amongst others, have been thrown out of the institution without no justification.
MPs were also very disturbed that the PMB failed to put together all necessary financial and management documents for the attention of the House for vetting.
The PMB, according to the MPs, did not have a centralized government computerized payroll system.
They were also accused by the MPs of having spent huge sums of money on DSA and travel with no supporting documents.
The Committee had also disclosed amongst other things that the PMB was also not able to account for funds transferred into the Treasury Single Account for the fiscal years 2018 and 2019 as required by law.
Records have also shown that the PMB received a total of Le103.7 million in the first quarter, Le103.7 in the second quarter, Le64.7 million in the third quarter and Le86.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2019 respectively.
The list of revenue sources for the fiscal Year 2018 and 2019 for both local and foreign was not properly highlighted by the PMB in their report submitted to Parliament as well as the details of all bank accounts and other banking details including opening and closing balance.
The revenues collected by the PMB for both 2018 and 2019 fiscal years were also not clear.
The PMB, the MPs say, had not produced sufficient evidence to substantiate how the institution had used monies allotted to the institution.
The list of projects and programs for which donor funds or grants were utilized by the PMB for FY 2018 and 2019 was also not collated for the better understanding of MPs.
The Managing Director of Produce Marketing Board, Mr. Gerald Demby, confessed that he has just recently took over as head of the institution.
He promised to get to Parliament after re-adjusting the documents earlier on submitted to Parliament.