A leaked investigation report carried out by an independent panel involving the Director General Zainab Jallow of Food Safety and Quality Authority (FSQA) found her wanting and culpable to most of the allegations made by the institution’s staff petitioners.
The FSQA boss is been petitioned for bad leadership, abuse of office, and corruption.
In another development on Friday November 17, 2020, the embattled director general is said to have authorized the dismissal of eight staffers of the Food Safety Authority, citing their participation on the petitioning as well as their participation in a pressure organised by the staff to vent their dissatisfaction towards the director general.
This medium has reliably learnt that the director general of the authority has withhold the salaries of about twenty-six staff from receiving their January salary, disclosing that the heels of this tension the director general is leading a delegation to the United States of America today Monday for a period of ten days.
Some staff members of the institution confirmed receiving their sacking letters.
Below are the recommendations from the conducted investigation by the independent panel.
The analyses of the findings and discoveries have been juxtaposed with the provisions of the FSQA Act 2011, Staff Service Rules of FSQA and other fundamental laws or guidelines of government to arrive at recommendations.
A Scheme of Service should be developed as soon as possible as its operationalization will guard against patronage in recruitment and promotions;
DG’s family should refrain from using the Authority’s vehicles forthwith. Even DG’s official car should not be driven by a family member who is not a staff especially late hours at night;
None of the petitioners should be punished or disadvantaged for signing a petition. They should not be discriminated during postings or promotions. The Board should ensure that there is no retaliation, victimization or punishment against the petitioners for filing the petition against the DG. Everybody has the right to file a petition, as stipulated under section 25 of the 1997 Constitution of the Gambia;
Considering the conduct of the Chief Driver Abou Njie to be gross misconduct, he deserves appropriate disciplinary action of demotion for conniving with DG’s family members by withdrawing Office vehicles from the field while work was going on and using the Office vehicle to transport DG’s brother’s children to and from school for 6 months;
For National Interest, the Board should ensure that the expired MoUs for the Ministry of Health and Fisheries are revised and agreed. The Board should further ensure an MoU is signed with any Government Institution considered relevant to Food Safety business. Despite the recent staff deployment, FSQA does not have the requisite staff to cover the entire country appropriately. In view of the above and given the provision in section 45 of the FSQA Act 2011, it is the responsibility of the Board to ensure that this fulfilled;
DG’s relationship with majority of the staff is considered unpleasant. As such, this will greatly affect productivity. The Board should be proactive and meet the staff periodically and know their concerns to avoid a repetition of petitions without the Board being aware. The staff should be allowed to lodge complaints to the Board through the Chairman when they are not satisfied with the handling of their complaints by their heads of departments and the DG;
The Board should be strong and take its role as prescribed by the Act so that staff will have trust and confidence in the Board and not think the DG dictates and controls the Board;
DG should desist from borrowing money from Accounts. Since the DG refused to respond to the Committee of Inquiry’s questions concerning the D40, 000 and other amounts she has been alleged to have requested and received for corporate social responsibility, the Board should ask her to account for the money;
DG should refrain from taking fuel that is different from her monthly allocation The Board should ask the DG to account for the different amounts given to her in the form of fuel coupons without authorization even though she had already been given her monthly fuel allocation;
Both HR Manager and Procurement Officer should be recruited as soon as possible and that all procurement matters including purchase of air tickets be accorded to the Procurement Officer as per the requirements of the GPPA;
The Act should be revised to accommodate Deputy Director General position;
All vacancies must be approved by the Board and the vacancy announcement be given enough time for all qualified interested Gambians to be given the opportunity. Furthermore, the advertisement should be done in at least three different papers with the same period of time;
The Board should ensure Offices and accommodation are provided for staff redeployed outside the main office. The Board is further advised to visit all duty stations where FSQA staff are present and observe their working environment and conditions;
Staff must be given tools to work with including desktops and laptops as soon as possible in a bid to improve service delivery, efficiency and effectiveness;
All decisions on appointments, promotions and dismissals of Officers in categories I and II should be indicated in the minutes of Board meetings;
The Board Chairman should sign all letters of appointment, promotion and dismissal of the staff in grades I and II that the Board is required to appoint, as was done by the first Chairperson of FSQA Mr Muhammed Sillah;
The Board should ensure that minutes of Board meetings are produced and provided to the Board members not later than one month after the meeting and all the minutes are signed by all the members present at the meeting. This is to avoid the concern raised by the former Board Chairman Dr. Bully Sanyang;
The Board should ask the DG to produce the air ticket she claimed to have bought and was refunded the money by the FSQA for one of her travels which cost the FSQA D168,000;
The Board should also ensure that the D40, 000 the DG borrowed from FSQA is paid and find out from her why she has delayed the payment of the money since February 2019;
The Board should ensure that the DG pays the extra 5 days per diem she claimed without authorization during one of her trips abroad when she was given only 10 days’ clearance instead of 15 days;
If all the financial allegations against the DG are found to be true, the DG’s actions will be considered fraudulent and a gross misconduct. The Board should therefore take appropriate disciplinary action against her; and
There should be easy communication between the staff, the Director General and the Board concerning any matter of the institution. The staff should have access to the DG to voice out their grievances and should take all means to give audience to the staff and shall encourage discussions in order to address the issue. Where the two parties could not settle the matter, it may be forwarded to the Board to address it.
In receiving the complaint, the Board shall take all necessary action to settle the matter.
Where members of staff infringe any part of the Service Rules, the DG shall take necessary action to address the issue in accordance with the Service Rules. Where the DG fails to settle the matter, he/she shall put the issue before the Board and the Board shall take necessary action to address the issues.
