By Mama A. Touray
Chairperson of the Local Government Commission of Inquiry, Jainaba Bah on Monday requested the Director of Procurement Policy and Operations, Ebrima Sanyang of Gambia Public Procurement Authority to provide the commission with the 2020 and 2021 report for Kuntaur Area Council.
This request was made by the commission when noticed that the report regarded as 2020 and 2021 report contains the transactions of 2018 and 2019.
The Chairperson raised that the GPPA report was for 2020 and 2021, but the report captured mainly transactions conducted in 2018 and 2019. She requested GPPA to provide information regarding the transactions for 2020 and 2021.
Counsel Gomez said the GPPA report, under the specific findings chapter, showed transactions in 2019 instead of 2020 and 2021.
“We don’t have anything for 2020,” Gomez said.
“That’s correct. The reasons for the inconsistencies could be copy and paste, could be corruption, could be mistake and it could be anything,” GPPA Director Jaiteh said.
Deputy Lead Counsel Gomez further asked, “Do you have a model as a style to follow in writing your reports?”
“We have a template. That is what is creating most of the problems. Most of the inconsistencies are copy and paste. We have a reviewing procedure. They conduct peer reviews from there it goes to the managers then to the directors before going to the Director General,” Director Sanyang responded.
Deputy Lead Counsel Patrick Gomez said the report indicated that Kuntuar Area Council was transacting with suppliers who did not register with GPPA. Adding that, there is no list provided.
The Commission requested GPPA to provide the Commission with the list saying that is a serious violation as it causes financial losses to the State.
The GPPA report indicated that the Kuntaur Area Council was not doing prequalification checks to ensure that they deal with suppliers that register with GPPA.
“The Kuntaur Area Council is non-compliant,” Sanyang said.
He continued his testimony saying there were no approvals by the contracts committee, no purchase orders, no delivery receipts, no inspections conducted, and the GPPA forms were not completed.
“These were wrong,” he said, adding, “Certainly, where there is no transparency and where the right procedure is not followed, it can definitely lead to corruption.
“I would not want to believe it is just a mere mistake. It is consistent. It is not like it is not there. It is there, but you just refused to report it. Are your people doing their job?” counsel questioned.
“I don’t think so,” Sanyang said.
In 2022, the GPPA did not provide the list of suppliers that do not register with them in their compliance review report for Kuntuar Area Council.
“We have a 2022 report still referring to 2019 transactions. Is it that they are refusing to give us the nature of the transactions of the Kuntaur Area Council?” Gomez asked.
“I think it is the quality of staff we have, but it is not a matter of not wanting to provide the information,” Sanyang said, adding, “It is incompetence.”
“The level of incompetence must be very bad. Don’t you think you need a complete overhaul?” Gomez further questioned.
“The reports are very poor. Some of these reports seemingly were not supervised and as you said, we need a complete overhaul,” GPPA Director Jaiteh said.
GPPA said weak contract administration is an invitation to corrupt practices and fraudulent practices are eminent.
Sanyang said they spent two weeks doing their procurement reviews in South Bank and another two weeks for the North Bank to deal with all the provincial area councils.