By Juldeh Njie
The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubacarr Tambadou, yesterday told the national assembly that a total of D50, 951, 261 was spent by the Janneh Commission from its inception in July 2017 to date.
He added: “This includes all the expenses incurred in the course of their investigations including but not limited to honorarium paid to the three commissioners and 58 staff, counsel fees, fuel, stationery, food, security, rentals among other things.”
He said the Janneh Commission should not however be measured in monetary terms alone.
Baa Tambadou said the value of their work exceeds any monetary value and he is proud to report that largely because of their work, conducted in a professional manner with respect and adherence to due process, fairness and transparency, they were able to expose the alarming scale of corruption and financial delinquency of the former President.
He continued: “We have shared the information generated in the course of their work with foreign governments that are assisting us with the tracking and recovery of assets procured through illicit enrichment and we have registered some success in this endeavour.”
Explaining further, the justice minister said they have seen a tightening of financial regulations by government departments and agencies to prevent corruption and financial leakage in the system.
“We intend to recover the entire cost of the Janneh Commission investigations by making those against whom financial adverse findings have been made to bear the costs of recovery in proportion to their responsibilities as found.”
Asked why the 138 tractors were sold when the agric ministry is in need of them, the minister said the commission is independent therefore, it is their discretion to engage any ministry.
He said in order to mitigate the risk of dissipation of the assets, they [the commission] decided to sell them as a matter of urgency but not all were sold. The minister also said the commission generated D67, 894, 170.00 from the sales of 138 tractors and 458 vehicles.
He further revealed that the report will be made available this Friday.
