By Makutu Manneh
Rohey Malick Lowe, the Mayor of Banjul City Council (BCC), has admitted before the Local Government Commission of Inquiry that she did not follow due process in instructing requests for public funds, conceding that the system at the Council was flawed and that her office often operated based on precedent rather than legal procedure.
Testifying on Wednesday, Mayor Lowe acknowledged that she gave verbal instructions to the former Assistant Public Relations Officer of BCC, Fatou Mbenga, to initiate requests for payments. These requests, according to vouchers presented to her at the hearing, led to disbursements including D400,000 for flood victims and D30,000 for media coverage.
Counsel Patrick Gomez presented the documents and questioned the Mayor about her role. She admitted that the requests made by Ms. Mbenga were indeed initiated on her directives. “Like I said, when we need something, we make a request to the CEO and now it is left to the CEO to decide,” Mayor Lowe said.
But Counsel Gomez clarified that the mayor’s office should not be requesting funds and determining how they are spent. “The money cannot be requested by the office of the mayor, and it decides how to spend it,” he said. Mayor Lowe countered, “I never decided on how to spend the money. The only thing I do is request. Implementation lies with the CEO.”
Referring to the D400,000 allocated to flood victims in Banjul, Mayor Lowe said she instructed Mbenga to request the funds but did not dictate how they were distributed. “An assessment was done by Modou Lamin Bah and the Red Cross. The CEO decided how to spend the money. After the approval, the payment to the victims was done by Fatou Mbenga,” she said.
“Who made the payment?” Lead Counsel Patrick Gomez asked.
“Fatou Mbenga,” Mayor Lowe replied.
“That’s wrong. She should not do that,” Gomez said.
“I totally agree,” Lowe said.
She further admitted that at the time, her mindset was that they were doing the right thing. “At the time, even if you told me not to do it that way, I would have disagreed because we thought we were doing the right thing,” she said.
She told the Commission that the money did not cover the victims’ full needs and that her family personally spent D350,000 more on aid. She said public criticism had painted the picture as though Mbenga had physically handed her the funds. “That is why it is painful that it is interpreted as if Fatou Mbenga took the money and brought it to my office,” she said.
On whether there was any retirement of the funds, Mayor Lowe said: “I am sure Fatou Mbenga would have done the retirement. Those we gave the money to are alive. NDMA has the list of the beneficiaries as well as BCC and maybe Red Cross.”
She reiterated that Mbenga was only acting on instructions. “She was just a messenger following my instructions and that of the CEO,” she told the Commission.
Counsel Gomez then put to her that Mbenga also received D30,000 for disbursement related to media coverage of the council’s fourth town hall meeting held in March 2022. Mayor Lowe admitted that this, too, was authorised under her instruction. “I agree, Lead Counsel, the process was wrong. If we could go back, it would not be done that way,” she said.
She added that although Fatou Mbenga worked under her, she never believed she was breaking any rules. “All I did was to make a request. It is not for me to decide the implementation. But Fatou was under my authority,” she said.
Counsel Gomez told the Mayor that although she has accepted her mistakes, the Commission must continue to examine each voucher because public funds were paid to different entities through the same flawed process.
He then asked her if she was aware that the law defined the procedures for handling public funds and whether her actions were based on ignorance or disregard for those laws.
Mayor Lowe responded, “The process of how the money is implemented is not my authority. I did not know there was procurement to follow, like for the media disbursement. This was the system we found at the Council.”
Mayor Lowe concluded that she has learned from the Commission’s work and that, moving forward, she would ensure her office acts strictly within the law.
