By Tabora Bojang
The National Assembly Public Petitions Committee has presented its report on allegations of corruption at the Gambia Tourism Board before the plenary yesterday and recommended that all the senior staff deployed and wrongfully terminated as a result of a petition, be recalled to the head office, and reinstated to their former posts with immediate effect.
Lamin Bojang, a senior product development manager, Adama Cham research and statistics manager, and Lazar Kujabi, a senior manager activities and promotions, all masters degree holders were deployed for allegedly petitioning the National Assembly in 2021 alleging corruption and irregularities in the award of contracts for the construction of ecolodges among others.
The staff petition implicates senior staff of the GT Board and the Ministry of Tourism including former DG Abdoulie Hydara, former director of finance and chairman of the contracts committee Ousainou Senghore, tourism minister Hamat Bah and former permanent secretary Codou Jabang, all of whom denied any wrongdoing.
However, Bojang got his contract terminated while Cham and Kujabi were moved from the head office and deployed to the provinces as regional tourism officers.
The parliamentary committee said it was extremely surprising to see highly skilled and qualified personnel redeployed to the regions, when they could stay at the GT Board’s main office to support the post-Covid transformation of the tourism sector.
The committee also recommends repayment of 50 percent deducted from staff salaries as result of a directive issued by tourism minister Bah for the GT BOard staff to be sent home due to Covid-19.
It also directed the Ombudsman, the Select Committee on Tourism and the GT Board to ensure the petitioners receive all the benefits accrued to them.
The NAMs also requested the Ministry of Tourism to immediately desist from taking major decisions on the administration of the GT Board without channelling them through the Board and further urged the NAO to institute a staff audit as soon as possible, to commence from January, 2017 to December, 2023 to ascertain the way and manner appointments and promotions are conducted.
Punishment against former finance director and chairman of contracts
The petitions committee also recommended that the former finance director and Chairman of the Contracts Committee Ousainou Senghore be “reprimanded for mis-guiding the contract committee members” by giving them a wrong analysis of the financial performances which eventually affected the scoring or the evaluation process. “This was done to give favour to Lerr Group Company, which was eventually awarded the contract to build ecolodges,” committee reports.
The petition committee also directed the FPAC to investigate further, who gave the authority to build the Sir Dawda Kairaba hotel at Barra that was eventually abandoned, costing millions.
Lerr Group be deprived of govt contracts
The NAMs noted that the whole contract between GT Board and Lerr Group needs to be revisited to establish facts around the contractor’s underperformance. They further directed that henceforth, government contracts should not be awarded to the Lerr Group since they are found to have seriously underperformed in Government contracts.
Allocations in the TDA
The petitioners alleged that tourism minister Hamat Bah has been interfering in the allocation of prime lands within the TDA. The committee said during its engagement with the minister he admitted waiving $450,000 for Kaijang company investors because he used his discretion as a minister, which he initially obtained in the form of a Cabinet approval for the 5% levy.
However, the committee said it has observed that there are no established rules or grounds for waiving a percentage on the development levy to be paid by investors. It recommended: “As per the cabinet approval of the 5% development levy, there should not be any discretion by the Minister to waive levy for any investor. All Land Allocations should be made by the Governing Body and not the Minister of Tourism and Culture. If there needs to be any waiver, the Governing body must engage in cost-benefit analysis and make justification for further approval by Cabinet.
The committee recommends to FPAC to set up an independent commission to look into how land is allocated to investors from 2017 to date within the TDA.
Accordingly, the committee rules that Priority Leisure Group, which was allocated a plot measuring 107m x 75m x 42m x 47m x 76m at the Duplex area, through Juka Fatou Jabang, needs to be reviewed and investigated. This company should be investigated more for the fact that the list of the shareholders as per the requirement was not indicated and was allocated a huge land.
The transaction involving this company is also a transaction involving a relative (daughter) who participated in the meeting of the Board during this process.”
The committee also ordered investigation into allocation issued to MOAB Capital Ltd represented by Binta Sompo Ceesay.
GT Board contract with Construct Limited for Tropics
The petition committee also recommended there need to be more investigations into the initial contract head office at the Tropics and what has been signed on the new head office built by Construct Company Ltd.
The FPAC and NAO are also instructed to conduct a cost benefit analysis of the overall picture in terms of the land allocated to Construct, the money paid to them and what is the total cost of the building that GT Board is currently occupying.
Budget allocation to Ministry
The committee noted that the GT Board has an allocation to cover certain issues including fuel and travels for officials at the Ministry of Tourism.
It recommended that “fuel supply” to the Minister and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Tourism and Culture on a weekly basis should immediately be stopped.
Conflict of interest at GT Board
The committee also noted: “There was indeed a conflict of interest at the Board. It is unethical for a husband and a wife, or a father and a son to participate in a Board meeting that concerns their interests. This is not promoting good governance for a state enterprise.”
Removal of Board chairman
The committee also frowned at the termination of the contract of former chairman of the GTB Governing Board Abdoulie Baks Touray by the minister of Tourism after he allegedly granted audience to staff aggrieved by the award of the contract.
“The way the Chairman of the Governing Body was terminated shows that the Minister was angry with the staff that went to meet the Chairman and this should not be allowed. As per the same act, the Minister cannot terminate but of course recommend to the President to terminate and the Governing body was dissolved for a day and reconstituted.”
