By Arret Jatta
The Chairperson of the Local Government Commission of Inquiry (LGCI), Madam Jainaba Bah, last Tuesday threatenedthe KMC’s director of administration Jaja Cham with a jail time at Mile II for his “defiance” in responding to questionsposed to him by the LGCI’s lead counsel.
The issue arose when Mr. Cham insisted that he be shown the second voucher before he could respond to questions about the voucher shown to him for the repair of one of KMC’s bulldozers at tune of D491,000 as indicated on the said voucher.
“You do not tell me what to show you,” counsel Gomez toldJaja.
“I only saw one voucher. Can I see the other one?” the witness insisted.
“Mr cham, if you ask that question again, you will sleep in Mile II right away. You answer the question. You are not supposed to ask him questions. Do you get that? I am just telling you I don’t need any response from you. Answer the questions. If he needs to ask you, you respond and if he doesn’t want to show you any voucher, he will not show you any voucher. You are seated there to answer questions. Do you get that?” Chairperson Bah warned Cham.
The witness was testifying about the repairs of bulldozers D8 and D9, stationed at the Bakoteh dumpsite.
Earlier, Jaja Cham testified that the D8 and D9 bulldozers were borrowed from the Council by the Office of the President because, at the time, they had challenges in clearing the dumpsite because of the heaps of rubbish at the landfill.
“It makes it very difficult for vehicles to get in and out of the dumpsite. So, as a result, they [Office of the President] gave us the two machines. I think the machines were collected from Kanilai at the time. Kanjura was instrumental in making sure that the bulldozers were transported to the dumpsite,” he added.
Mr Cham also said that the bulldozers started operations at the dumpsite but that one of the drivers of the machine drove the bulldozer into a waterlogged ditch, which led to its collapse, adding that bulldozer D8 was overused at some point because it was the only one available, leading to its eventual breakdown.
He further testified that they requested money from the council to repair the bulldozers but when questioned whether or not he was referring to the contracts committee or management, he replied in the negative, saying Kanjura Kanyihimself was directly involved in the operation.
“Now, you had approved the payment of one million sixty-six thousand dalasi to Mr. Kanjura Kanyi for the repair of bulldozers D8 and D9,” Counsel Gomez put it to Jaja.
“It’s not one million. Each transaction was treated differently.Each bulldozer was transacted differently,” he answered.
However, the lead counsel argued that it was not two separate transactions and that the work was done at the same time,saying that the person that travelled to Senegal to fix the bulldozers went with the two bulldozers at the same time.
The witness was later handed the voucher of 50 % payment for the cost of maintenance and transportation of bulldozers D8 and D9 and the amount stated was D122,500.
“Does that not suggest it is one transaction?” counsel Gomez asked.
“To my understanding, it is not one transaction,” Jaja replied.
