By Tabora Bojang
A former Petroleum Minister, now minister of tourism, Abdou Jobe has told a joint parliamentary committee investigating the ‘suspicious’ importation and sale of fuel worth $30M from a Russia ship, that a new government policy he issued on 30 October 2023 changing policy on fuel importation was discussed in cabinet.
The new policy allows international traders to bring petroleum products and deposit them at the national fuel depot Gam Petroleum directly. It also provided that foreign importers have the right to decide on the method and location buyers of their products should settle invoices (local or foreign bank accounts) and that funds can be “repatriated to the seller’s foreign account to enable them continue to procure the petroleum products to ensure continuity for the Gambian market and for re-export to the neighbouring countries.”
The National Assembly committee said evidence provided by the national deport Gam Petroleum suggested that before the coming of Apogee, (the company selling the Russian oil), international traders don’t have direct access to the deport and that the depot relied on the ministry’s policy to allow them to do so.
Last month, a former permanent secretary at the ministry of petroleum Amie Njie told the enquiry that some of the provisions of the policy are “operational and regulatory” matters, and not the responsibility of the ministry.
PS Njie also told lawmakers that she was not aware of the conceptualisation of the policy and it was “prepared by the minister” and only a “draft copy was sent to her to go through” it.
When asked why she did not advise the Minister, PS Njie said she can only advise when her advice is sought and in this case it was not.
But when confronted by the enquiry lead questioner Hon Kebba Lang Fofana, on the change of policy he issued that was not known by his permanent secretary, Minister Jobe argued that policy formulation is “not the responsibility” of the permanent secretary. “This policy was just defining the limits for depositing and monitoring etc. and it was already existing. It is just meant to provide clarity. This is a very sensitive sector. Energy security is a national security matter and cannot be left with ambiguity. I provided this clarity for all stakeholders. I don’t have to wait for a problem before I provide clarity,” he said.
The minister also revealed that discussions were made at cabinet level before the policy came into existence.
He was asked to provide the enquiry with the date and year the matter was discussed in the cabinet but he said he cannot give that information arguing that issues discussed in cabinet are “secret,’ and advised the enquiring committee to liaise with the secretary to the cabinet to provide it to them.
Following a long argument between him and Hon Fofana, the chairman of the committee for that session Billay G Tunkara ruled that the information be provided by the minister at the end of this month.
Minister Jobe was further questioned by the committee whether he knows Apogee, one of the companies being investigated in connection with the Russian oil, he said he knows them “on paper” based on submissions from Gam Petroleum and GPS that they stored products at their depots.
Jobe was also asked if he was aware of complaints made by oil marketing companies OMCs about Apogee’s monopoly at the Gam Petroleum and he replied that OMCs wrote a letter to the ministry and he directed regulators, Pura, to look into it. Asked about the outcome of the investigation, he said Pura had written to Gam-Petroleum and the depot refuted their claims.
Hon Fofana also told the minister that evidence provided by Gam Petroleum suggested that before the coming of Apogee, international traders don’t have direct access to depot and that the depot relied on the Ministry’s policy to allow them to do so. “This policy is not specific to Gam-Petroleum; it was for all terminals,” he said.
