Senegal will call former president Macky Sall to court, according to a government spokeswoman on Friday, after the audit agency of the nation discovered anomalies in the treasury’s bookkeeping during his tenure.

Following an independent analysis that invalidated official data under his supervision and drastically increased the public deficit and debt, the former president is being accused of overseeing a disastrous mismanagement of the public coffers.

Sall, who has been in Morocco since resigning from office last year, has dismissed the controversy surrounding the article as political.

The former leader, Moustapha Sarre, who controlled Senegal from 2012 to 2024, may even be regarded as the head of a criminal organization, according to the government spokesperson.

Sarre cautioned, “Legal proceedings cannot be avoided.”

The February 12 report from the audit office revealed accounting irregularities, including a 2023 budget shortfall of 12.3 percent—more than twice as much as the 4.9 percent declared under Sall.

A fresh start from the Sall era has been promised by Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who was elected president in March of last year.

Sall’s longstanding rival, Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, pledged last September to look into what he claimed was pervasive corruption in the previous government.

A politician close to Sall was accused with fraud and money laundering on Thursday, one of several former officials who have been indicted and imprisoned in recent months.