Momodou Sabally, former secretary general and head of the civil service, has told the Janneh Commission that instructions on who to pay from the government Tax Recovery Accounts held at commercial banks came from former president Yahya Jammeh.
Sabally has been named as a signatory to the accounts.
“The former president decides who should be paid from the Tax Recovery Account. The instructions are either written or verbal though mostly they are verbal,” said Sabally.
A one-time powerful member of former president Jammeh’s cabinet, Sabally said the creation of the account was a direct instruction from the President to save tax arrears.
He said they were not comfortable with the opening of the account at a time he was at finance as the director of budget.
Sabally further said the account, though tax payers’ money and government revenue, was outside of budget appropriated by the National Assembly.
Durng the past days, the commission heard that monies taken from the tax recovery account to various people including one payment of over 1 million, three hundred thousand dalasi, was paid to Ansumana Tamba, a one-time State House army commander.
