Dear Editor,
The Essential Commodities Act 2015 defines the list of essential commodities under Article 2. It says they are foodstuff, first and foremost. Then it went on to add that they could be non-food stuff as declared by the Minister. Thirdly, it states they could also be any other class of commodity which the Minister declares in a published gazette.
In 2021, the Minister of Trade announced that the Act requires importers of essential commodities to obtain an import license from the Ministry to be able to import these commodities. The essential commodities mentioned by the Minister were rice, sugar, edible oil, flour, chicken thighs, whole chicken, onions, and potatoes.
In 2022, the Ministry of Trade gave a list of names of businesses to the Central Bank to disburse more than 100 million dollars to these entities to import essential commodities. At the time, the Central Bank Governor Buah Saidy refused to disclose the list of names of businesses that received the money
Now, the current Minister of Trade, Baboucarr Joof, in responding to NAM Omar Jatto Jammeh of Janjanbureh, who raised this matter, identified 15 entities, including the Ministry of Health, as the ones that received the money. Speaking on the floor of parliament on March 12, Minister Joof said the list of businesses,
“Were selected by government to benefit from foreign currency withdrawn from Gambia’s reserves … to help them import essential goods’ into the country in the wake of supply chain disruptions brought on by Covid and the Ukraine – Russia war.”
Here is the list of entities Joof mentioned and what they used the money for:
1. JV General Trading for the importation of rice, sugar, and cooking oil
2. Fouta Enterprises (rice, sugar, and cooking oil)
3. Jah Oil (petroleum products)
4. Kepa Track Group Limited (rice, sugar, flour and cooking oil)
5. GGC (rice)
6. G-Farms (poultry and livestock feed)
7. Global Properties (rice)
8. Unique Group (rice,)
9. Concise 360 Company Limited (sugar)
10. GNPC (petroleum products)
11. LBJ and Sons Company (sugar)
12. QuantumNet (for the purchase of 30 new buses)
13. Orange Energy Gambia (petroleum products)
14. Nawec (for the settlement of payments to Karpower and Senelec)
15. Ministry of Health for procurement of ambulances.
Now the questions.
This list raises several pertinent questions for which there is a need for transparency. First of all, did the Minister of Trade announce in 2022 the list of essential commodities as per the Act? This is pertinent in light of the following questions.
1. Do buses constitute an essential commodity?
2. Does paying for Karpower and Senelec constitute an essential commodity?
3. Do poultry and livestock constitute essential commodities?
4. Are ambulances essential commodities?
The second set of questions:
1. Can the Central Bank Governor decide on his own to withdraw hard currency from the country’s reserve to hand over to businesses?
2. In that regard, is there any agreement or contract signed between these businesses and the government?
3. This also raises a fundamental question: was the National Assembly involved in seeking their approval for this decision?
4. Which means, is this money given as a loan or a donation?
5. If it were a loan, have any of these entities paid back the money?
Interestingly, neither the Central Bank Governor Buah Saidy nor Minister Baboucarr Joof have disclosed yet how much money exactly each entity was given.
Even more concerning is that some of the beneficiaries are not private business companies such as GGC, GNPC, Nawec, and the Ministry of Health, which are public institutions. Furthermore, some of the businesses are also not known to be food vendors, such as Global Properties, Unique Group, QuantumNet, and Orange Energy. Meanwhile, the profiles of the others remain to be clear.
Therefore, the third major question is, what were the selection and eligibility criteria for this facility?
I commend NAM Omar Jatto Jammeh for raising this matter. But I contend that this matter is still not fully addressed. I would urge him to go further to seek a motion for the establishment of a parliamentary inquiry into this matter. I urge all NAMs to join Jatto Jammeh to probe this facility to ensure that every butut belonging to the Gambian people is retrieved and used properly.
The fact is after giving over 100 million dollars to these entities three years ago, the shortage and high prices of essential commodities remain prevalent. Why?
For the Gambia Our Homeland
Madi Jobarteh
Kembujeh
