By Arret Jatta
Sandigie Njie, the administration manager at Banjul City Council, testified before the commission, revealing shocking details about the council’s IT infrastructure.
“We spent about D4.1 million on IT infrastructure for our new complex, that was never provided,” Njie said.
The contract was awarded to Microtech, but the council claimed the company failed to deliver a functional system.
Njie explained that the council had to reach out to Gamtel, a telecommunications company, to assess the situation.
“Gamtel deployed a team of experts, and they came up with a report highlighting the problems,” Njie said.
The report revealed that the network cabling did not conform to structured cabling best practices, and there was a lack of proper cable management.
“The servers provided by Microtech did not have pre-installed hard drives, and the operating systems were not installed. Without storage, the server cannot be deployed for critical IT functions. The council also discovered that there was no CCTV system, and wireless connectivity was poor,” the report stated.
Lead Counsel Patrick Gomez asked Njie about the contract and the payments made to Microtech.
Njie replied that the council sent several letters to the proprietor of Microtech, Lamin Gassama, but he was not forthcoming.
“He was trying to play smart, and we are informed that there are traces of money to some of those who were a part of this deal in their accounts,” the witness said.
He added that the council is now considering reporting the matter to the fraud squad of The Gambia Police Force. “We will not let this money go in vain. I am having a feeling of suspicion, something is not right,” Njie said. The commission admitted the report from Gamtel into evidence.
