Manneh Asks Sillah in Giga Debate
By: Momodou Justice Darboe
Retired international civil servant cum senior official of the UDP Mr. Lamin Manneh has tasked works minister Ebrima Sillah to give evidence of any infrastructural development as a result of the Senegambia Bridge’s “recycling”.
Last year, the Gambia government announced it had reached an agreement with Africa 50 to “recycle” the Senegambia Bridge for other infrastructure development initiatives.
This announcement came weeks after the government signed the agreement, which was widely criticized as many believed that the government was secretive in its dealings with Africa 50. The government only made the announcement when CTGN reported details of it.
According to Mr. Manneh in a Giga debate with Mr. Sillah on Coffee Time With Peter Gomez last week, The Gambia stands to incur a net loss of US$20M as a result of the Africa 50 contract.
“He [Sillah] told one of the programs that they were making about D52M [from the bridge]. So, at the time, that was almost a million dollars at the dollar exchange rate. For 25 years, that is US$300M and these guys went ahead and mortgaged that bridge, which we got for free and they tell you it’s recycling,” argued Mr. Manneh. He went on: “They mortgaged it for US$100M for 25 years. So, a net loss or strengthened loss is US$20M for us. What’s more, when they made that arrangement, they never told anybody until it was leaked by a CTGN journalist and they admitted to signing a contract agreement with Africa 50. And then they went ahead and said it’s finalized and the minister told us in the last budget that 15 million was coming from that to the budget. But what they’ve said is that they’re going to put aside the US$100M to invest in infrastructure. You should not do this but if you are to do it, you set up a Social Purpose Vehicle (SPV), which is a kind of special fund in which you put the money for other investments, which you should prepare ahead of time.”
According to the senior UDP official, who’s also the party’s shadow foreign minister, nobody can say where the money from the Africa 50 deal went.
“Nobody knows where the money went. Has the money come to this government? Where is the infrastructure? More importantly, they should have taken the agreement to Parliament because it’s an international agreement. It should be ratified by the Parliament before they did. They are in total violation of our Constitution. Why do you mortgage our bridge for US$100M; a third of its potential value?” stated Manneh.
In his response, Works Minister Sillah said that not all PPP agreements go to the Parliament for ratification.
OIC Roads Project Money
The senior UDP official challenged Mr. Sillah to furnish citizens with interim reports about the OIC roads project following Sillah’s claim that the road construction project could be auditedonly after the execution of the project. Sillah also said the relocation of Nawec pipes and some telecommunicationinfrastructure has been costing huge sums of money.
“These people will wait until hell freezes over before you have any of these documents coming out of them. And this road project will not be finished until they leave the government in 2026. So, why are we waiting till then? Show us the documents as we go along,” maintained Mr. Manneh. He added: “You have interim reports, you have everything. What are you waiting for? Why don’t you give us the interim report of what is happening now… We see what’s been paid and we see where the money is going. People need to see some of that, going forward. Not just wait until everything is done. There are interim reports coming at different times. Why don’t you give us interim reports and show us where the money is going? It’s too easy to say he has not got his facts. I giving you the facts and you are telling me you don’t have the facts because he[Sillah] is trying to spin something that is not correct. Even the relocation works he talked about are minor in terms of the cost in road construction. It’s the pipe and a few structures you are moving. So, that’s a minor cost.”
