Audit Reveals Spending Irregularities at Canada’s Senegal Embassy

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (C) walks with Abdoulaye Diop (R), then Minister of Culture and Communication of Senegal, and Ahmed Hussen (L), Canadian Member of Parliament, upon his arrival on Goree Island off the coast of Dakar on Feb. 12, 2020. Seyllou/AFP via Getty Images

Auditors have identified spending irregularities at Canada’s embassy in Dakar, Senegal, during a review that spanned from 2019 to 2022.

The audit, released under the title “Audit of Management Practices of Missions: Dakar,“ revealed a need for enhanced controls in contracting practices. The mission is Canada’s second-largest of its kind in Africa, with an annual budget of $9.4 million.

The inquiry, first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter, was conducted in the same timeframe as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s visit to Senegal as part of a campaign that unsuccessfully sought a seat for Canada on the United Nations Security Council, costing $8.9 million.

The investigation scrutinized 41 randomly selected contracts and found that 10 contained discrepancies, including instances where payments were made for items previously included in contracts, effectively leading to double billing. Additionally, the audit reported occurrences of contract splitting, violating Treasury Board regulations by dividing a larger expense into smaller payments to bypass oversight.

“There was one transaction where the supplier’s name in the financial and administrative system did not match the supplier’s name on the invoice,” stated the audit.

“A number of purchases made using the petty cash accounts were not supported by invoices from the supplier,” it added.

The audit is part of ongoing examinations by auditors into the financial management of Canadian foreign missions after Global Affairs Canada terminated 17 local employees at its embassy in Haiti following the discovery of a fraudulent scheme in 2016. The scheme resulted in a loss of $1.7 million to the diplomatic mission over a 12-year period.

Of these employees, 12 were part of Global Affairs Canada, while the remaining five were employed by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. The investigation, initiated in the spring of 2015 by Global Affairs, revealed “inadequate practices” at the Port-au-Prince embassy, including the inflation of bills, theft and diversion of materials, and collusion with local suppliers from 2004 to 2016.

Past audits have unveiled several issues at other missions, including unrecorded cash transactions in the Ivory Coast, missing documentation in Mali, and improper financial reporting, such as concealing a $145,000 expenditure for a party pavilion at the embassy in Ethiopia as routine maintenance.

In addition, auditors discovered a discrepancy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where a vendor, initially contracted for $6,000, received over $20,000. In Manila, the embassy over-budgeted utilities at $500,000 annually, yet spent no more than $418,000. Beirut embassy staff awarded contracts to themselves, and in Amman, Jordan, diplomats paid a contracted house painter $542,000.