By Mama A. Touray
The Director of Compliance and Public Practices, Samba JB Tambura in his testimony before the ongoing Local Government Commission of Inquiry (LGCI) testified that the 2019, compliance review report of Banjul City Council (BCC) revealed that the council has no procurement officer.
In his testimony on Tuesday before the LGCI ongoing at Djembe Hotel, Senegambia, Director Tambura told the Commission that the “2019 compliance review report of the Banjul City Council (BCC) stated that there was no procurement officer in the council and this would have an impact because the law requires that there should be procurement officers. The law requires that procurement officers should be formally appointed and evidence of such should be”.
Mr. Tambura further testified that Abdoulie Corr, the Audit Manager of the council was doing the auditing which he said was not normal together with two acting procurement officers.
“Procurement is a process. If the auditor is the one who conducts procurement, who audits the procurement? It is not normal. The processes can be compromised and there can be potential conflict of interest. How can you audit yourself? Those in charge were not bona fide personnel to be in charge of procurement. The law said there should be a procurement officer,” Tambura explained to the Commission.
He said the reason for the institutions to submit to the Gambia Public Procurement Authority initial documents is to approve the procurement method and the approval of the bidding documents.
For 2019, the report he said showed that there were single sourcing of 266 transactions amounting to D3.2 million, 51 transactions requested for quotation, and 1 transaction for restricted tender.
He added that in some of the transactions, Banjul City Council failed to attach the requisite documents to the GPPA and that was a course for concern. He also testified that the Chief Executive Officer Mustapha Batchilly failed to appoint members of the receipt and contract committee members.
Also, he pointed out that the BCC failed to appoint procurement officers. And that the law requires that there should be a procurement unit and procurement officers. He was quick to add that there was no disposal committee as well at Banjul City Council.
When asked by Deputy Lead Council Patrick Gomez as to the implication for these lapses by the accounting officer [CEO], the witness said: “If laid down rules are not followed, of course, there are implications. If principles and procures are not followed, there are general compromises in the process”.
The witness said the procurement unit is set up to conduct procurement and that failure to do that means there are violations.
