By: Momodou Justice Darboe
The paramilitary has taken control of the proposed new office complex of the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, and Natural Resources (MECCNA) amid reports of moves to drag the Gambia government to court over breach of contract.
The Gambia government on Saturday deployed a team of paramilitary officers at the office complex in Abuko to guard it.
“The paramilitary officers came yesterday and shielded the place. No movement is currently allowed in and out of the complex,” our source said.
The Gambia government and Lerr Group were involved in long drawn-out consultations over the proposed new MECCNA complex.
The contractor Lerr Group has asked the Gambia government to pay the company D15M for the variations that it said were madeon the contract.
The matter dragged on for more than two years and it became a subject of deliberations at the Cabinet.
A year ago, this reporter visited the Ministry of Works to gather more details about the issue but the Permanent Secretary Louis Moses Mendy declined to comment when contacted through the ministry’s information officer. He was quoted as saying that the matter was at the Cabinet level.
Reliable sources have informed this reporter that Lerr Group has already consulted its lawyer for advice on legal steps. Sources said the company has been contemplating legal actions to recover the D15M that it said was the cost of the variations.
It was not clear whether the putting down of the complex under armed guard had anything to do with Lerr Group’s reportedmoves to go down the legal lane over the D15M.
However, the spokeswoman of the Gambia Police Force (GPF) ASP Binta Njie told The Voice that the information she gathered was that the deployment of the paramilitary officers at the complex was not as a result of any emergency.
“It’s a routine security operation,” she explained to this medium, relying on the information she gathered from the operations commander.