By Kebba AF Touray
Dr Demba Sabally, the Minister of Agriculture has informed members of the National Assembly that a total of thirty-eight million, three hundred and thirty-eight thousand, six hundred and fifty Dalasi (D38, 338,650.00) was generated from the sale of donated rice.
He stated this on Wednesday, 20 December 2023 on his appearance before the National Assembly.
The Minister was asked by the Member for Janjanbureh, Honourable Omar Jammeh, on behalf of the Member for Busumbala, Honourable Muhammed Kanteh to state the amount of money generated from the sale of Eighty-Six Thousand (86,000) bags of rice donated by the Government of Japan to the Government of the Gambia.
“The National Food Security Processing and Marketing Corporation received 69,643 bags of donated rice at our depot and it is not 86,000 as indicated in the question. In addition, the total amount of money derived from the sale of the rice was D38, 338,650 which was transferred to a dedicated account at the Central Bank of the Gambia,” the Minister said.
Member for Banjul Central, Honourable Abdoulie Njai said the World Food Programme recently terminated a 222 Million Dalasi contract with the government due to failure on the part of the Government to deliver 2,335.70 metric tons of COVID-19 Rice supplies to the poor and vulnerable. Honourable Njai asked the Minister to provide the details.
The Minister replied that the contract was terminated due to the suppliers defaulting on their responsibilities of fulfilling the contract agreement and did not respond.
“Those contractors did not supply the rice. They are being arrested, in the process of prosecution and they are in the hands of the police,” the Minister said.
The Member for Sami Constituency, Honourable Alfusainey Ceesay asked the Minister to state the Government’s plans to solve the problem of lack of tractors during the rainy season, which he said was a regular complaint of the farmers. Agriculture Minister Sabally replied that the Ministry of Agriculture in late 2020 procured a fleet of 50 tractors and accessories and constituted a tractor ploughing scheme under the coordination and supervision of the Agricultural Engineering Services, under the Department of Agriculture.
“These tractors and accessories were deployed to selected sites nationwide including mixed farming centers. Besides this, the regional rice value chain has also procured seven units of tractors and accessories, four of which are already delivered to beneficiary communities within the project intervention areas,” the Minister said.
The Minister said there is one tractor in Sami Karantaba and this year in 2023, Sami benefited from four power tillers from the regional rice value chain, which are located in Jarummeh Koto, one in Lamin Koto and one in Karantaba Toro Wollof.
Honourable Alhagie S. Darboe, Member for Brikama North on behalf of Central Baddibu Lawmaker, asked the Minister for Works to state whether there are plans to construct a road from the highway to Kerr Bateh through Minteh Kunda. Ebrima Sillah, the Minister said currently the procurement process is currently ongoing for the GIRAV Project under the Ministry of Agriculture which will complement the road from Kerewan to Njawara, which will be a 27-kilometer feeder road project. This, he said, will connect Njawara to Minteh Kunda through Kerr Bateh. He added that this is intended to create access to markets from the gardens to the trunk road.
When asked when the project will commence, the Minister said “The procurement process is on and the contractors are being procured through the GPPA process. Hopefully, by the end of February, the procurement process will finish and then works will begin in an annex in some of the areas which are over 100 kilometres of roads across the country. And we are working with the Ministry of Agriculture on that”.
Member for Lower Saloum, Honourable Sainey Jawara asked the Minister to update the Assembly on the recent incident involving the Rating Office under the Management of the Gambia Ports Authority amounting to 17 Million Dalasi embezzlement, the staff involved and the Manager. Minister Sillah stated that the National Audit Office had submitted its final report on the revenue leakage reported at the Rating Office on 13 September 2023 and had recommended further investigations by the Gambia Police Force for reasons that the GPA did not present some of the documents requested to conclude the audit findings.
He added the Office of the IGP is currently conducting further investigations into the matter.
He said the interdiction imposed by the Minister on the manager was lifted on 18 April 2023 following the board decision in which the legal representatives of the manager asked the GPA to reinstate him.
