By: Binta Jaiteh
Hon. Sainey Jawara, National Assembly Member for Lower Saloum has moved a motion sought to establish a Commission on 36,953.614 metric tons of petroleum products illegally imported into the Gambia.
He tabled the motion on Monday which was adopted by the Hosue to establish a Parliamentary Inquiry into the Petroleum Products of 36,953.614 metric tons worth $30,000,000 (thirty million US Dollars).
According to him following a parliamentary question relating to the matter of some petroleum products in The Gambia, and guided by section 109 subsection 2(a) and (b) of the Constitution of the Republic of The Gambia, “I rise to move a motion requesting for this august assembly to establish a parliamentary inquiry into the vessel that anchored in The Gambia with a total of 36,935.614 metric tonne of petroleum products.”
Honourable Jawara expressed concern that The Gambia is a tax-based economy, where both companies refused to pay tax on the transaction and there is no evidence of any income from the proceeds of the sale product.
Noting that the Financial Intelligence Unit (IFU) interventions on the said products that were trading in the country without due process through the Bank transaction in both ECOBANK and ACCESS BANK GAMBIA LIMITED.
Furthermore, he said the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) went further to request from Access Bank and ECOBANK, the account opening package and statement of accounts of the said companies to conduct investigations on the matter.
During the investigations, he disclosed that Mr. Aurimas Steblyswas arrested and handed over to the police in Banjul for questioning; an intelligence report indicated that this name mentioned should be further investigated to establish possible criminal transactions and loss of revenue to the state. The GRA and Inspector General of Police were, both, provided with an intelligence report for further action.
According to him, FIU also received intelligence that certain individual(s) are allegedly receiving kickback (bribes) of GMD600,000 (six hundred thousand dalasis) monthly, which shows that at the end of every month, this said amount is withdrawn from the Access Bank account No.0010110000555 by one Mr. Aurimas Steblys.
Hon. Jawara stressed that all the deposits in the above accounts are likely from the sales of the petroleum products traded in the Gambia by Apogee through Ultimate Beige Logistic and Creed Energy Limited. A review of the documents provided by Access Bank showed that Creed Energy agreed with Crossbreed Holding Company which is licensed by the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) to trade in petroleum products in The Gambia, to use its (Crossbreed) petroleum import license to pay commission either per trading or annually.
However, intelligence shows that this agreement was objected to by Apogee FZC, hence the agreement was never enforced. He said the FIU report shows how those so-called sub-accounts Creed Energy/Apogee FZC and Ultimate Beige/Apogee maintained at Access Bank and ECOBANK are not in line with the provision of the Anti-Money Laundry Combine Terrorism Finance Act, 2012 (AML/CTF Act 2012).
Conclusion
The Assembly tasked the Joint Committee of the Finance and Public Committee and the Public Enterprises Committee to thoroughly inquire into the matter with a view of establishing the whole truth and facts and report back.
During the debate, NA Member for Serrekunda West, Hon MadiCeesay said this motion is very important due to a revenue loss in the State. The commission if handled properly, he said, will sanitize government in a sense that the bad elements will be identified and the perpetrators will face the consequences of the law.
“We cannot allow the State to lose even a butut outside the coffers of the State” he reasoned.
“I suggest we set up a special committee that would investigate this matter. The National Assembly should set up a special commission that will investigate this matter. In the fifth legislature a similar issue happened wherein parliamentary inquiry was given to the Public Accounts Committee regarding the Semlex saga and that particular committee failed the country woefully,” he made a suggestion.
Member for Upper Saloum Constituency, Hon. Allagie Mbowsupported that there is a need to set up a parliamentary investigation on some of the allegations dealing with petroleum products valued at $30,000.
“Looking at the motion and the report, one can conclude that there is economic crisis. There is also revenue loss on the side of the government with the potential act of money laundry. We need to have a parliamentary investigation that will dig into the matter to make sure the needful is done,” he added to other members’ suggestions.