By Tabora Bojang
The National Assembly has rejected a petition filed by Whats-on-Gambia, a popular online media, to investigate corruption allegations at the Gambia Ports Authority.
The GPA has been embroiled in corruption scandal after staff at its rating unit were accused of issuing and duplicating fake receipts and soliciting brides and inducements between 2020 and 2022, making away with D4 million every week.
This was followed by multiple investigations by the police, National Audit Office and the GPA management, who conducted an inhouse investigation which confirmed the fraud but failed to share the findings publicly.
This prompted WOG to roll out an online petition which has since generated over 9000 online and physical signatures and sent it to the National Assembly to investigate the allegations.
However, a highly placed source at the Assembly said the petition was dismissed at the level of the Office of the Clerk because it is not ‘admissible.’
According to our source, once a petition is addressed to parliament, it is the responsibility of the clerk to go over it and determine whether it is in order under the rules of the Assembly to be admissible or not and duly inform the committee members.
Our source added: “There is a clause in the Standing Orders which says an investor that has direct economic benefits from the petition cannot have his petition admitted and, in this scenario, it seems the petitioner has that type of interest and on those grounds, the best place for that is the courts.”
