By: Nyima Sillah
The erstwhile budget manager at the Central Bank of The Gambia (CBG) has described procurement as the Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) to Gambia’s economy.
Despite claiming that an overseas trip by government officials could cost taxpayers up to half a million, Mr. Momodou Saballysaid the happenings in the area of procurement cannot be equated to the amount of taxpayers’ money being spent on overseas trips by government officials.
“Sometimes their ticket goes up to half a million but it’s still a drop in the ocean compared to what is happening in the area of procurement. That is the biggest damaging Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) in our economy,” Sabally, also the campaign manager for the UDP, told Coffee Time with Peter Gomez.
“The whole idea of having GPPA has been defeated and you can see signs of it on the newspapers already and the government itself trying to water down procurement regulations when it comes to sensitive issues like petroleum,”he argued.
The ex-CBG budget manager alleged that a paper was taken to the Cabinet to weaken controls over the procurement of fuel.
He explained: “They took a paper to Cabinet to water down the controls of procurement for fuel procurement. I spoke about this. Unfortunately, some people don’t even listen to it and I know this is very serious. I know the key players in the petroleum industry. I know their connection with the powers that be. So procurement, especially heavy infrastructure like roads, government buildings, and stuff like that. I think this is where we are losing money in the millions of dollars.”
