By Mama A. Touray
The GPPA’s Director of Procurement Policy and Operations has revealed that the Banjul City Council’s Steering Committee used the project money meant for the Crab Island Solar project, and the fencing of the dumpsite vicinity at Mile II to give loans to themselves.
Ebrima Sanyang in his testimony on BCC at the ongoing LGCI, on Wednesday, 9th August 2023 revealed further that members of the steering committee of the project at the Banjul City Council made advanced payments to themselves while those meetings “never” held.
Director Sanyang affirmed that the practice led the EU to demand a refund of the money, adding that the “EU does not give loans in such manner.”
“People were taking the project money for their personal (use) (gains,” Deputy Lead Counsel Patrick Gomez said.
Mr. Sanyang noted that people selected to implement the project are allocated allowances, stating that the committee probably abused the system to give themselves loans.
He clarified that Loans and salaries are not part of procurement, but a matter of administration, “If part of the money was diverted for personal gains then part of the project will not be implemented.”
The solar project, according to his testimony, was meant to install solar at Crab Island in Banjul, and another component of the project was the fencing of the Banjul dumpsite situated in the vicinity of Mile II.
He went on that BCC secured funding from the European Union through Ostend City Council of Belgium and intended to use part of it for the procurement of solar for the former Crab Island Lower Basic School in Banjul.
“Such projects are donor funded and they have financial agreements. Part of the agreement was probably for the creation of a special committee to be responsible for the project,” Sanyang said.
The Steering Committee of BCC met over the project and discussed it.
“Mustapha Batchilly- Chief Executive Officer, Mamlie Jassey – Project Coordinator, Essa Sowe – Procurement Officer, Alfusainey Gano, Anna Barry – Admin Secretary, Alpha ModouBah – procurement intern, Dado Jallow – procurement assistant and Oumie Bah – procurement intern. Other attendees of the meeting were two representatives of GPPA, Unique Energy, and Ostend Project. The list captured two names of representatives of GPPA in the meeting. One of them was Ousman Krubally” Sanyang revealed.
But he clarified that GPAA has no staff with the name OusmanKrubally.
He said BCC wrote to GPPA seeking approval for the procurement with the information that they have conducted market research and the funding suggested that there are a few suppliers available in the market with the capacity of fulfilling this contract.
Director Sanyang testified that BCC did not provide GPPA with the list of targeted contractors. Adding that the title of the letter was seeking approval for “open tendering” but the content of the letter stated “restricted tendering”.
Sanyang However told the commission that GPPA approved the procurement for “Open Tendering”. Open tender he said allows multiple suppliers or contractors to compete while “Restricted Tendering” limits competition as BCC have targeted suppliers that they want to deal with.
On the reason for the inconsistencies, Director Sanyang said BCC like other councils do “Copy and Paste” letters and this is why at times the content of a letter is different from the subject.
Counsel Gomez together with the commission noticed that there was no evidence of adequate advertisement made in the project.
“What we have before us cannot clearly explain that there was adequate advertisement made. We cannot say open tender procurement method was used,” Sanyang said
More so, he said in the files there is a receipt with the invoice number and an attached invoice from the Standard newspaper. And that there was a newspaper extract that is not dated and does not show the name of the newspaper. Sanyang said the advertisement was for an “Open International Tender.”
Sanyang testified that GPPA approved the “Open Tender” and not the “Open International Tender.” Sanyang said that BCC using an “Open International Tender” without approval from GPPA was wrong.
He said Six (6) suppliers purchased the tender forms and only five (5) of them filed their bidding documents. And that BCC asked the bidding companies to send soft copies of their proposals to the City of Ostend for evaluation.
He told the commission that BCC later wrote to GPPA indicating that the contract was awarded to Unique Energy.