By Mama A. Touray
The Hon Minister of Works and Infrastructure spoke on what could be the fate of the Senegambia Bridge staff on Saturday during an organised press briefing centered on the Government-Africa50 PPP arrangement of The Senegambia Bridge held at the Ministry of Petroleum Conference Room at the Petroleum House, Bijilo.
Minister Ebrima Sillah speaking at the briefing stated that “Currently all the staff that is at the Senegambia Bridge are under the payroll of the government of The Gambia under the Accountant General Department. If Africa50 takes over, assuming that they want to proceed with some certain number of staff, as a government we will have to look at the technical capacity of the existing staff”.
Hon Sillah added that if an assessment is done and the staff is fit to be employed, they will be absorbed, if not they are already a permanent staff of the Accountant General Department but quick to say that there is no loss in terms of employment.
Hon. Sillah, however, assured that “the Africa50 and the government of the Gambia have been in direct discussions for about almost a year and all the critical stakeholders within the sector like the transport union, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure and other beneficiaries within the sector like the Gambia Ports Authority, Ferry Services has all been widely consulted.”
Proper data according to Minister Sillah was duly collected during consultation, explaining that “Africa50 and the technical staff of my Ministry were stationed at the bridge for almost two to three days to look at the operations and what could be done better to look at how to properly and efficiently manage this bridge. We have also visited other important assets within the country like the Basse and Fatoto Bridges”.
He said this proof was subjected to a vigorous consultation and the result is what has been seen and that quite apart from what they have done in Togo with the signing, the Gambia was highly hailed by other African countries.
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