By Tabora Bojang
The Finance and Public Accounts Committee of the National Assembly has queried the government for failing to respond to its resolution for it to provide a written explanation as to why the approval for single source procurement of rehabilitation work at the State House was sought only after the completion of the work itself.
The National Audit Office report on the government finances for 2019 revealed that GAI Enterprise was awarded a contract of D17,488,155.63 for the construction of the President’s Office and rehabilitation works at State House.
However, auditors highlighted a series of irregularities in the contract including “failure of the contractor to make amendments directed by public procurement regulator GPPA, before work commences.
The auditors further observed that approval was only sought for the use of a single source well after the rehabilitation work was completed and that a further review of the contract documents revealed that payments would be made in stages but instead a review of payment voucher 01PV021043 dated 27th May 2019 showed that GAI Enterprise was paid the full amount.
In line with these findings, FPAC passed a resolution on September 2023 resolving that the Secretary General at the Office of the President and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Works provide a written explanation on or before 28th September 2023, as to why the approval for a single source procurement for the project was sought only after the completion of the work and not before.
Updating the Assembly on the implementation of these and other resolutions, FPAC vice chairman and Upper Saloum NAM Alagie Mbow disclosed that since the passing of the resolution, the office of the Vice President did not provide FPAC with any update on the status of this resolution.
Mbow added that his committee now recommends that the office of the Vice President provides the updates on or before the end of this month, September, 2025.
Under the same contract, FPAC also passed a resolution for the contracts committee and the Secretary General at Office of the President in 2019, to reimburse the sum of D950,000.00 being a contingency amount they were asked by the GPPA to remove from the contract with Gai Construction for the project.
However, Hon Mbow said this resolution is now addressed since the D950,000 contingent fee is part of the adjustments requested by GPPA to be amended prior to signing the contract, but it was never paid to GAI Enterprise.
Banjul roads project
On the Banjul drainage, roads and Sewage contract which was also awarded to Gai Enterprise, FPAC resolved that the Secretary General at the Office of the President and Permanent Secretary at Ministry of Transport Works and Infrastructure must provide a written explanation for accepting the Banjul roads contract and evidence that GAI Enterprise is the most suitable and qualified contractor to carry out the project. But Hon Mbow disclosed that there are still no updates provided by the government on this matter and it remains unresolved.
