By Tabora Bojang
Works Minister Ebrima Sillah has responded to claims by opposition UDP executive member Lare Ceesay that Turkish investors Albayrak, which is awarded a contract to invest and manage Gambia ports will get 96 percent of the ports revenue streams while the Gambia government takes only 4 percent.
Ceesay, a retired international civil servant alleged on West Coast radio that government is hiding an aspect of the contract that deals with revenue sharing, and that it is only disclosing the shareholding agreement which gives 80 percent to Albayrak and 20 percent to the government.
Ceesay said the revenue stream, where the issue lies, resolved that, out of every 100, Albayrak will get 96 percent and Gambia, 4 percent. He questioned the rationale in arriving at such rations for a port that was making profit and paying dividends to the government. Ceesay also alleged that the company was supposed to deposit a specific amount for the contract to kick in but the government waived it for them.
Contacted to clarify the revenue arrangement, Minister Sillah exolained that government has different revenue streams, some tangible and some not tangible.
“For example, in the entire project being 100 percent, we are getting 4 percent of all gross revenue from the port’s activities. If you minus that from 100, it remains 96 percent and it is from that 96 percent where Albayrak will pay the staff costs, the cost of running the ports and payment of dock workers. The staff costs alone before the takeover by Albayrak accounts for 27 percent of the GPA’s revenue, while operating expenses including consumables, equipment and dock works constituted about 20 percent. So after all these deductions, the profit that is made, the government gets 20 percent as dividend and Albayrak goes with 80 percent,” the minister said
Minister Sillah argued that if the government was to bear the staff costs, operating costs, maintenance of the equipment, insurance and payment of dock workers, gross revenue would have gone to about 53 percent in addition to the 20 percent dividend that government will get.
He also disclosed that Albayrak will also take 10 percent from its 80 percent profit into a reserve account for investment at the deep sea port in Sanyang.
Minister Sillah further rejected Ceesay’s claim that Albayrak was supposed to make a payment to the government before the contract starts. “They were not supposed to make a payment and nothing has been waived for them. The government has not spent anything on the concession. All the risks are put on Albayrak. We have not mortgaged our assets. It is for them to operate the assets, improve on them and after six years of operating in Banjul, all other assets are returned to the government,” Sillah said. He said all the moveable assets at Banjul were monetised and they paid to the government.
Asked if the government will accept Mr Ceesay’s challenge to share the contract with the public, Minister Sillah argued: “What is demanded is unreasonably unfair to the government. We have nothing to hide but government cannot fully disclose the whole contract in line with industry standards. Go and google whether you will see port concession projects of any country being fully published anywhere in the world. We have nothing to hide but there are industry standards that you follow. What they are demanding I have not seen anywhere in the world. Senegal, Ghana, Sierra Leone all have these contracts but go and see if you will see such a thing,” Sillah argued.
He said the concession has brought efficiency at the ports of Banjul by removing congestion, demurrage and ship waiting.
