By Tabora Bojang
The National Assembly’s Public Enterprises Committee PEC has raised concern that investment decisions at the Social Security and Housing Finance Corporation SSHFC, “appeared influenced by presidential directives raising questions of institutional independence and exposing pension funds to significant risk.”
Presenting the Committee’s consolidated report on the National Audit Office NAO’s performance audit of the SSHFC 2022 -24, the chairman of PEC Hon. Lamin J Sanneh, Member for Brikama South, said his committee found “serious governance and financial” control concerns that “exposes pensioners funds to risks” through weak documentation, insufficient approvals and questionable investment decisions.
“The Committee approached this matter with particular seriousness because SSHFC is the custodian of pension-related funds and therefore decisions affecting such funds must be lawful, prudent, transparent and guided by the principles of safety, sustainability and trust,” Chairman Sanneh said.
He revealed that PEC found a litany of irregularities, inappropriate contracts, issuances of over a billion in loans to government institutions on terms deemed unfavourable, in addition to over half a million ineligible payment to board members for medical refunds, specific allowances and emergency sitting allowances.
According to the Committee, the SSHFC on one occasion complied with a directive from the Office of the Vice President in 2022 to sign a contract of 18.1 million euros with a Dubai company for the supply of buses. It said during the auditors review of this transaction, they discovered that SSHFC signed the initial contract with Ashok Leyland and TK XPORT LLC Dubai-UAE on the 16th August 2022 to supply 100 buses, but an addendum was made to the contract on the 17th August 2022 to supply 50 buses for a revised contract value of 9.817 million euros.
It said this was done per a directive from the Office of the Vice President and the contract was signed before the consent and approval of the SSHFC board which sat on the matter two months later seeking clarification after the contract was signed and initial payments affected.
The parliamentary committee also found that despite agreeing to pay these loans at the tune of D132.8 million, government reneged on the payment and directed through the Office of the Vice President that the loan be redirected to GTSC, leaving the loan without any valid payment plan.
Lawmakers recommended that the SSHFC Board and Management engage legal counsel to conduct a thorough review of the legal implications of the redirection of the loan agreement to GTSC and assess whether there are any legal avenues to enforce the initial agreement, or seek compensation for any losses incurred because of the redirection.
The Committee also found that the SSHFC also issued loans to several government institutions, some on behalf of the government, but most of them are poorly arranged, making their repayments a challenge.
It revealed that the SSHFC entered into an agreement with National Food Security Processing & Marketing Corporation formally GGC in which it lent GGC D223M, but the payment was ridiculously only D200,000 per annum, which lawmakers say will take approximately 1,116.49 years.to complete.
“This is considered to be too long for SSFHC to recover the amounts in full without default from NFSPMC,” it noted.
The parliamentary committee further revealed that the SSHFC also loaned Gambia Civil Aviation Authority GCAA and amount of D92,6M with a payment plan of D500,000 monthly but the auditors noted a difference of D2,5M between what is expected and what is actually paid by GCAA.
The Committee further found that the SSFHC gave another loan of D816,706,067 to the government on behalf of Nawec with a bi- annual payment plan of D163, 341,213.40 , but the auditors noted that out of the D163,341,213.40 expected, only D81,670,606.70 was paid.
