The Department of Internal Audit is under the Office of the Commissioner General, headed by a Director and assisted by two Deputy Directors with each heading a Unit. The Department comprises of the Administration and Operations Units. The Deputy Director of the Operations Unit supervises the review and audit of revenue collections of both Customs & Excise and Domestic Taxes whilst the Deputy Director of the Administrations Unit supervises the administrative affairs and audit of financial statements (Subvention received from Ministry of Finance & Economics Affairs).
In addition, the Deputy Director in each Unit is assisted by Managers who are assigned to carry out different audits such as Financial Statement, Performance Audit, Operational Revenue Audit, Risk and Compliance Audit and the supervision of weekly and daily routine activities.
The department is guided by the Internal Audit Charter, Operational Manual and a yearly Annual Work plan detailing the audit activities to be carried out. The workplan is subjected to scrutiny, review and approval by the Board of Directors which requires the conduct of audit reviews and submission of quarterly reports.
The GRA Act 2004 requires that the financial statements of the Gambia Revenue Authority are audited annually. As a result, the Department of Internal Audit was created with the mandate of providing effective and efficient internal control oversight.
As part of the Internal Audit function, key audits and reviews carried out include but not limited to the following:
- Domestic Taxes Operations on Revenue Collections;
- Customs & Excise Operations on Revenue Collections;
- Subvention/Financial Statements Audit;
- Performance Audit of Support Service Departments;
- Daily review/ Pre-auditing of Payment Vouchers;
- Review of the monthly Payroll Master;
- Verification of deliveries and Review of Procurement Payments; and
- Audit of other Income Received from Bonded Warehouse sub-letting, Sale of Single Administrative Documents (SAD), Tender Documents, Agency Fees on registration and renewal by Clearing Agents among others.
As part of the efforts to strengthen compliance and adherence to processes and procedures, the Department institutes sound control mechanisms in the Authority which includes quarterly treks to all revenue collection points in the province and Greater Banjul Area. During such treks, audits are conducted and reports submitted to Management and Board of Directors for decision making.