By Omar Bah
The Chief of Staff and Minister at the Presidency, Mod K Ceesay, has summoned the Director General of Gambia Maritime (GMA), the Solicitor General and two other relevant Permanent Secretaries to his office for a meeting on the controversial awarding of the country’s ship registration contract to a Cypriot company.
The summon letter signed by Alieu Loum on behalf of the Chief of Staff, seen by The Standard, invited the officials to a high-level stakeholder meeting on Friday, 27 June at the Office of the Chief of Staff, State House, to discuss the legal and procedural concerns arising from the contract executed between the Gambia Maritime Administration (GMA) and MDIR Ltd of the Republic of Cyprus.
The meeting, the letter added, is being convened in reference to a legal opinion from the Ministry of Justice, which raised serious concerns regarding the validity, legality and financial implications of the agreement in the contract.
The letter said the objective of the meeting is to formally assess the issues raised and determine the appropriate course of action, including possible renegotiation of the agreement as advised by the Ministry of Justice.
It will be attended by the Permanent Secretary-Ministry of Finance, Solicitor General & Legal Secretary, Director General-Gambia Maritime Administration, Legal Counsel-Gambia Maritime Administration and Permanent Secretary-Ministry of transport, Works and Infrastructure.
The contract outsourced the country’s international ship registry to MDIR Services Ltd, a private company based in Cyprus. That company subsequently established a subsidiary, Gambia International Ship Registry (GISR), to manage the registry under the Gambian flag.
The agreement under the contract delegates significant authority to MDIR, including the power to register all types of ships (excluding those for local trade), issue and revoke licences and certificates, and represent The Gambia at International Maritime Organisation (IMO) meetings, as well as collect user fees for these services.
Controversy erupted over the matter after it emerged that one Bintou Janneh, allegedly a daughter to the GMA Director General Karamo Janneh, is GISR’s regional manager in The Gambia, raising ethical questions and suspicion of conflicts of interest over the matter.
