By Adama Makasuba
A taskforce formed by President Adama Barrow to investigate last October’s fuel shortage has found massive cover-ups and blatant disregard for established procedures.
The taskforce was chaired by Trade & Employment Minister, Seedy Keita and membership from the State Intelligence Service (SIS); Permanent Secretaries of Trade and Ministry of Petroleum (MOPE); Director General of the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA); Managing Directors of The Gambia Ports Authority (GPA), Social Security and Housing Finance Corporation (SSHFC) and The Gambia National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).
Ebrima G Sankareh, spokesman for the government said in a statement that “After intense and comprehensive investigations, the Taskforce presented its preliminary report to President Barrow on Wednesday 9th January, 2021 at a session attended by the Vice President, a cross section of Cabinet and members of the Security Services. Contrary to the reports and figures presented by Gam Petroleum (GP), The Taskforce found massive cover-ups and blatant disregard for established procedures.
“Significantly, the Taskforce found out that four out of the five gasoline tanks at the Gam Petroleum Depot in Mandinary were totally empty. The fifth tank, in fact, contained only 50,000 litres consisting of a mixture of gas oil and water. The stock of petrol as of 1st November, 2021 was 910 metric tonnes and that of JET Fuel was 4,209 metric tonnes. Stocks entrusted to the National Depot by International Traders (Addax, Trafigura and PSTV) and local Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) were equally missing. The total volume of products missing was 10,753 metric tonnes of petrol and 20,245 metric tonnes of gas oil with a cumulative value of approximately USD20, 968,100.”
“The Taskforce found that the missing stocks were issued without any legitimate authorization and the value of the unaccounted stock at pump price (including duties and taxes) was USD31, 265,972. The projected tax and duties throughput attached to these stock values is approximately USD10,297,872, which needed to be ascertained if paid or not. The investigations revealed that the Management of Gam Petroleum illegally allowed some OMCs to take fuel without proper authorization.
“Moreover, the Taskforce also discovered weak oversight of the Depot operations and poor compliance with the regulatory framework of the Petroleum Products Act of 2016. Equally, the Board of Gam Petroleum (GP) was weak and lax in checking Management’s blatant excesses. In a crass disregard for supervisory instructions, the Management of Gam Petroleum provided fraudulent, dodgy and terribly misleading information and was equally, not forthcoming with reliable facts during the review by the Presidential Taskforce.
“Consequently, the Taskforce recommends that PURA’s Management strengthens its regulatory oversight functions over GP and ensure that the National Strategic Reserve mechanism as stipulated in Section 25 of the Petroleum Products Act, 2016, be fully enforced. In addition to PURA, the State Intelligence Service (SIS) and the Weights and Measures Department of the Trade Ministry should deploy staff at the Depot until the situation is adequately normalized,” the statement said.
The restructuring of Gam Petroleum should include the constitution of a new Board of Directors, immediate appointment of an interim management, rustication of the current management with subsequent legal processing for wrongdoings, formation of an Audit Committee, implementation of appropriate modern software for stock management and prosecution of all persons and entities directly and indirectly responsible for the stock theft and national gasoline shortage. Lost stock must be legally recovered.
According to him, the Presidential Taskforce recommends that the current practice of elevating the Second Layer of Management to oversee the operations of Gam Petroleum and the Depot be immediately halted as it is inconsistent with standards of best practice and a recipe for unabated malpractice and or corporate fraud, adding the National Audit Office (NAO) should review the audit reports by PKF to ascertain the position of GP at the time of the takeover from Euro Africa Group. This NAO exercise should be followed by forensic audit of Gam Petroleum by an independent firm to determine the full extent of the losses including any taxes that may be due to the State.