By Tabora Bojang
Alpha Barry, a co-partner of Alpha Kapital, the firm hired by the government to sell properties forfeited from former president Jammeh in Banjul, yesterday told the commission that they received authorisation from the ministerial committee comprising the ministers of Land and Tourism to sell properties in Banjul.
The firm was hired to replace Augustus Prom following the submission of the Janneh Commission report to the president.
Explaining to the parliamentary committee the procedures his firm took to sell the properties in Banjul, Mr Barry said the ministerial subcommittee would meet and identify the number of assets and write to him with authorisation to sell the properties they earmarked.
“We would then go ahead and draft an advertisement and share it with the office of the Attorney General. We would receive the bids and take it to the office of the Attorney General and open them in his presence and the Solicitor General too would be present. As we open the bids, we would do analysis of the names of bidders, how much they offer and from there we award the winner based on who paid the highest amount,” Mr Barry told the enquiry .
He continued to disclose that usually, they would call the winners of the bids to inform them and give them a time- line to make payments. “We tried to avoid handling cash so we directed all successful bidders to pay at a particular bank account,” Barry said.
He made it clear that the properties in Banjul were initially valued by the Janneh Commission and that his firm did not do any valuation for Banjul.
Mr Barry also confirmed meeting President Barrow for his office to fast track the allocation of lands in the TDA to FTI for the construction of a hotel.
However, the Member for Janjangbureh Omar Jammeh asked Mr Barry to explain why he did not approach the relevant institutions instead of the president. “We engaged all stakeholders starting with the GT Board. So we did not go to the president to circumvent any procedures or institutions. We went to the president to fast track the allocations,” Barry replied.
