By Mama A. Touray
The chairman of the Local Government Service Commission (LGSC) at the Ministry of Local Government, Lands and Religious Affairs, Momodou Jallow has on Thursday testified on the demotion and redeployment of the deputy chief executive officer of the Kanifing Municipal Council.
Testifying at the ongoing Local Government Commission of Inquiry underway at Djembe Hotel in Senegambia he said on the 31st of May 2023, they received a letter from the lawyer of the Kanifing Municipal Council on the disciplinary action taken by the Local Government Service Commission towards the deputy CEO of KMC Kajally who was demoted and redeployed.
“The lawyer for Kanifing Municipal Council wrote to us that they are disregarding the decision of the Commission that the Commission does not have the authority to discipline any council staff without a recommendation from the established committee and also the Commission does not have the authority to make transfers and that the Ministry should not convey the decisions of the Commission,” he told the commission.
He said according to the KMC lawyer, they have instructed the deputy CEO to disregard the decision of the commission.
He continued that “Well according to the letter they said they are disregarding the letter, they are not taken the letter and that means he is not moving but I think in the letter there is a timeline given, we are yet to sit as commission but at least we need to allow that timeline and there is dateline for him to handover and also to move to his new position”.
He stated that as of now the deputy CEO is the one overseeing but a new Chief Executive Officer is redeployed to KMC and that is the CEO at Janjanbureh.
Jallow however, explained that: “Sainabou was asked to be at KMC but the commission decided to make some movement and Sainabou has moved to Kerewan, and the one at Kerewan is redeployed to Janjanbureh, the one in Janjanbureh moved to KMC, this redeployment took place last week by the Commission”.
He stated that the earlier decision was for Sainabou to go back to Kanifing Municipal Council and that as she was there, she was not allowed to take over.
Meanwhile, Chairman Jallow also told the Commission that the role of the establishment committee is to advise and send recommendations to the Commission, regarding the issue of staff appointment and discipline, staff promotion, and issues of staff matters are discussed at the establishment committee then the recommendation is sent to the Commission.
He added that the local government Act did not state that if a recommendation from the establishment committee is not passed the commission cannot discipline any staff.
“The issue of Kajally came because of not adhering to the decisions of the local government service Commission; it was not a matter of internal issues within KMC. This was for him disregarding the decisions of the commission”.
Mr. Jallow explained that the deputy chief executive officer of Kanifing Municipal Council was asked to come and face the commission, which he did the Commission gave him a final warning to hand over. He insisted then the Commission decided that he should be disciplined and that they don’t need anything from the establishment committee because he was going by the decision of the committee itself and the council at large.
