By Tabora Bojang
The National Assembly special select committee which probed the disposal of assets linked to former president Yahya Jammeh has noted that a significant portion of the alleged foreign currency assets linked to the former president remain unrecovered.
The committee presented its report Tuesday triggering an explosion of reactions from Gambians outraged by the findings which implicated several former and serving officials in the government. The report paints a damning picture describing alleged conflicts of interest, dereliction of duties and non-transparent method of the sales of lands frozen from Jammeh, cattle, vehicles and other valuable items among others.
In carrying out its mandate, the committee said it conducted a comparative analysis of the amounts established in evidence as having been embezzled and the amounts recovered through asset tracing, forfeiture, and disposal processes. The assessment considered recoveries across currencies in which the embezzlement occurred, namely the dalasi, US dollars, pound sterling, and euro.
According to the report, the amount alleged to have been embezzled in dalasi was D1,065,021,512.00. However, the amount recovered through tracing, forfeiture and disposals is D1,730,716,875,08 leaving a positive variance of D665,695,368.08. This indicates recoveries denominated in dalasis exceed the amount believed to have been embezzled. Conversely, recoveries in foreign currencies remain substantially below the amounts allegedly embezzled.
The amount alleged to have been embezzled in US dollars is USD 304,718,071.00 but the amount recovered is USD 2,636,676.87 leaving a difference of USD 302,081,394.13. The report further noted that the amount alleged to have been embezzled in pounds sterling was £2,250,000 but the amount recovered is £20,250 leaving an outstanding variance of £2,229,750.
For the euro, the committee said the amount believed to have been embezzled was €29,475,269 but the amount recovered is €15,965.66 leaving a variance of €29,459,303.34
“These disparities demonstrate that based on the evidence before the committee, a significant portion of the alleged foreign currency assets remain unrecovered, underscoring the continuing necessity for strengthened recovery mechanisms, financial tracing capacity and international asset cooperation,” the committee stated.
The parliamentary committee added that the systemic deficiencies exposed by “this inquiry should serve as a decisive moment” for the government to complete the reform process it began in 2017 by undertaking “deeper administrative restructuring” and to “decisively eliminate all residual practices” incompatible with modern democratic governance.
“The work before us now is to translate these findings into reform and to ensure that never again will the management and disposal of public assets occur without discipline, transparency and professional integrity,” the committee said.
