By Nicholas Bass
The case of three senior health officials facing corruption charges resumed yesterday at Banjul High Court with testimony from Human Resource Professional, Ernest Anthony Mendy attached at the National Revenue Authority (GRA).
Testifying before Justice Ebrima Jaiteh yesterday Ernest A Mendy told the court that Health Promotion Development Organization (HePDO) started sometime in 1997 with the name Association of Youths against Malaria (TAYAM), noting that in 2005 its name was changed to HePDO .
Mendy told the court that HePDO has seven (7) board members under the chairperson of Fanta Jatta Sowe,adding that he is part of the board of HePDO.
“Since HePDO was established, it comprised ofdirectors and board members,” Mendy said.
According to Mendy the board of directors are charged with the responsibility of its operations and it is headed by chairperson Sowe, stating that the board of directors make sure its policies are implemented.
He went further to say HePDO’s secretariat is headed by the executive board of directors that is responsible for administrative and operational matters.
Mendy also said that HePDO is a sub-recipient of Catholic Relief Service (CRS) support under the Global Fund, noting that HePDO partners with CRS and Ministry of Health (MoH) through a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that emanated from HePDOsecretariat and such MoUs were approved by the board. But its financial transactions were signed by the chairperson Sowe and the Executive Director of HePDO, Omar Malleh Ceesay.
It could be recalled that sometimes 2018 and 2020 the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Health (MoH) Muhammed Lamin Jaiteh, manager of Malaria Control Programme, Balla Kandeh and Omar Malleh Ceesay, the Executive Director of HePDO were charged with conspiracy to commit felony, official corruption, economic crimes, theft and forgery while
the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Health (MoH) Muhammed Lamin Jaiteh on a separate charge stands accused of disobedience of statutory duty.
