By Tabora Bojang
Two senior officials of the ministry of finance, Permanent Secretaries Abdoulie Jallow and Baboucarr Jobe on Monday appeared before the National Assembly joint committee investigating the sale and importation of $30 million worth of oil imported from a Russian ship without tax payments.
Among other things the enquiry is trying to get to the bottom of the entire processes involved in the importation and storage of petroleum products in the country.
The two officials were asked to explain the processes involved for international traders to import petroleum products in the country. It followed the testimony of the General Manager of Gam Petroleum, the owners of the national fuel depot, Yero Jallow, who said his company has a deposit agreement with a company called Apogee (one of the companies involved) to store their products in the depot at a time when there was a need for fuel in the country.
The Gam Petroleum GM said following the storage of the product, they had received subsequent ‘release orders’ from Apogee, a Dubai-based company, to release it to buyers.
On Monday, the lead questioner of the committee, Hon Kebba Lang Fofana followed this line of enquiry by asking the two permanent secretaries to give an explanation about the processes.
In reply, PS Jobe said purchases of oil in the industry are made from the refineries, so that oil market companies (OMCs) who may not have the financial muscle go through international traders and make their orders before it is imported to the country.
He said following the liberalisation of the sector in 2018, the government came with a policy to allow OMC’s to import products provided they meet certain requirements including financial capacity and availability of importation plans.
PS Jobe explained that when importing fuel, it is the OMCs that will apply for storage requests from the depot after doing their negotiations with international traders and once they have approval from the depot, the international trader will bring the products and deposit it for them at the depot.
Asked if international traders will have to get licensed before they can bring products to the Gambia without operating through oil marketing companies, PS Jobe replied: “There is no trader that will bring their products and dump it at the depot without an OMC requesting that they need the products. That is why in the conditions, we stipulated that operators need to have an importation plan to share with the depot. So there is an importation plan that importers should submit at the beginning of every year in terms of how much fuel they will bring in the year and what quantities in each quarter of the calendar year. We cannot have a situation where a trader will just pick a vessel and go and dump products without a request from an OMC.”
Asked if international traders can make direct requests from the depot for storage purposes, PS Jobe responded that international traders “don’t have that right” adding that the “depot is dealing with OMCs” as their store keepers.
“It is not for the trader to say I am coming to give you the product. No. It is the OMCs that will have to write to the depot to inform them about the coming of their product and make requests for storage of their products,” he explained.
But continuing his questioning, Hon. Fofana put it to the witness that the arrangement at the depot has now changed and instead of the OMCs negotiating with the international traders, it is the depot that is doing the negotiations.
PS Jobe replied that such a situation will be a “mis normal” and added that he does not know when this change was effected.
Hon Fofana then informed him that the policy came into effect on 30 October 2023 and read out a letter signed by former minister of energy and petroleum Abdou Jobe, who is now the minister of tourism and culture.
This letter, according to Hon. Fofana, shifted the previous policy by now allowing international traders to bring petroleum products, store it at the depot and wait for buyers.
Though the letter indicated it was copied to the permanent secretary at the ministry of finance, PS Abdoulie Jallow stated he cannot recall receiving such a letter and
cannot also recall any change of policy of that nature.
Hon Fofana explained that the enquiry is very “particular about this policy because it is the one that redefines ‘our engagement with traders, the engagement of the depot and the depositors and licence holders.”
The enquiry continues.
