By: Kebba AF Touray
The Gambia Parliament has on Monday 22nd July 2024, referred a motion seeking to establish a parliamentary inquiry committee into the petroleum products saga to the joint committee of Finance and Public Account Committee (FPAC) and Public Enterprise Committee (PEC).
The motion was tabled before the plenary by the member for Lower Saloum Constituency, Hon. Sainey Jawara.
Hon. Jawara, said the motion expressed concerns that the Gambia is a tax based economy, adding that the companies at the center of this controversy refused to pay tax on the transaction pertaining to the imported petroleum products, adding there is no evidence of any income generated from the proceeds of the sales of these products.
He noted that the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU said the imported petroleum products were traded in the county by the said companies without following due process.
He informed the assembly that during the investigation, one Mr. Aurimas Steblys was arrested and hand over to the police in Banjul for questioning and intelligence report indicates that the name should be further investigated to establish possible criminal transaction and loss of revenue to the state.
He told the parliament: “Both GRA and IGP were provided with an intelligence report for further actions”
He went on to say that the FIU also received intelligence that certain individuals were alleged to have received kickbacks (bribes) of D600,000.00 monthly, which shows that every end of month, the said amount is withdrawn from Access Bank Account No.0010110000555 by one Mr. Aurimas Steblys.
He expressed concerns 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.
He added that a review of the documents provided by Access Bank, showed that the companies were licensed by PURA, to trade in petroleum products in the Gambia, and to use the (cross breed) petroleum import license with the intention of paying commission either per trading or annually.
However, he said that the intelligence report shows that this agreement was objected by Apogee FZC, hence the agreement was never enforced.
“The FIU report shows that the manner in which these so-called sub-accountants Creed Energy/Apogee FZC and ultimate beige/Apogee maintain at Access Bank and ECO Bank are not in line with the provision of the Anti-Money Laundry Combine Terrorism Finance Act, 2012 (AML/CTF Act 2012),” Hon. Jawara said.
He reminded the assembly that 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 1997 Constitution of the Gambia, “I rise to move a motion requesting for this assembly to establish a parliamentary inquiry into the vessel that anchored in the Gambia with a total of 36,953,614 metric tons of petroleum products”.
He said that based on the foregoing, he requested that the assembly do establish a joint committee of FPAC and PEC, to thoroughly inquire into the matter, with a view of establishing the whole truth and facts and report back.
He also moved “I further request that the said Joint Committee, if deems fit, to be granted leave to operate during the recess period of the Assembly”.
