By Kebba AF Touray
Mr. Yero Jallow, the General Manager (GM) of Gam Petroleum, said his institution has since its inception been operating without a license, and has never complied with regulations, particularly to have a bond storage license.
He made this statement in response to allegation of tax evasion and bribery, which is currently under Parliamentary inquiry by the Joint Committee on Public Enterprise Committee (PEC) and Finance and Public Accounts Committee (FPAC).
Mr. Jallow appeared before the joint committee on Thursday, 22 August 2024, to provide his testimonies to the committee, about the ongoing parliamentary inquiry into the fuel saga.
He made this statement in fulfillment of the letter dated 19th August 2024, that was sent to him by the joint committee requesting him to submit a statement.
He said that as indicated in the letter, his role is to provide the relevant documentation regarding the matter as evidence that may assist the joint committee in the investigations into the allegations
He said, “My team has gathered some relevant documents that we believe are sufficient to provide the facts relating to the cargo, the owner of which though not specifically stated (in the summon) may be attributabled to Apogee FZC, based on the information from the joint committee.”
However, he emphasized that Gam Petroleum storage facility company Limited, under the current management, is a very transparent business entity, and their doors are open to all those who want to know about how they do business with them.
He said that they therefore crave the indulgence of the joint committee to consider the following points for the sake of their integrity and efforts in ensuring the availability, affordability, and accessibility of petroleum products in the country.
Point one, he outlined, is that Gam Petroleum since the change of management, has gone through a tremendous transformation both in terms of the documentation of its operational policies and procedures and its compliance with regulations and standards.
He told the committee that Gam Petroleum from inception has never complied with any regulation, especially the main regulations that it is supposed to comply with and that is to have a bond storage license.
“So it has been operating without license and for the first time, when we took over we have bond storage license and it has also not had any environmental and fire clearance certificates before and all these things are now available,” he told the committee.
He testified that this is why the institution has won the respect and confidence of international traders that they had to resume operations with the terminal “after more than one year of boycott since the unfortunate incident in 2021, which cost Gam Petroleum millions of Dollars in the era of the previous management.”
Mr Jallow informed the committee that by the time he was taking over, there was a boycott because no trader was bringing fuel into the country, and there were fuel shortages all the time.
On point two, he said that they believe that the joint committee should have sought clarification and understanding of the policies and procedures of the operations of Gam Petroleum and the concepts that underpin these operations before making serious allegations.
This, he said, would have provided clarity and understanding of the way the terminal operates and its relationship with the traders or depositors and Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs).
On point 3, he told the committee that presenting these allegations in the presence of the media, without proper understanding of the subject matters, as complex as the oil and gas company, and the way Gam Petroleum terminal operates, has the effects of tarnishing the reputation of the professionals and their families, considering the perceptions the allegations “will create and has indeed created.”
On the way they do their operations, concerning the legal and governance status of the institution, Jallow explained that the institution is not a public corporation, but a private limited liability company, with government majority shareholding through public corporations.
He added, “As such, it is governed by a Board of Directors representing the various institutional shareholders. They provide oversight and strategic direction under the leadership of the board chairperson. The management team, under the leadership of the General Manager, is responsible for the general management and day-to-day operations of the company.”
On services, he said that as the name implies, the institution provides a storage facility that provides storage services for the depositors of petroleum products and loading tanker trucks for delivery.
He said: “Through these services, it generates income and the terminals enter into two types of agreements, which guide its relationship with the traders or the depositors and the importers in the provision of its services.”
The storage agreement he said is signed between the terminal and the traders, which governs the vessel discharge and storage operations for the traders.
On bonded warehouse concepts, he told the committee that the institution operates under the bonded warehouse concepts, which means that its storage tank in which petroleum products are stored is at the border, and thus the products that are bonded and deposited in the tanks cannot be considered as imports at that stage.
On vessel discharge and storage operation, he explained that before a trader or depositor loads a vessel to bring to Gam Petroleum terminal, they must apply for ullage, in accordance with the ullage application guidelines of the Depot.
He said that they have now developed an application form for this application and if there is a space, it will be approved on a first come first serve basis, and the trader must provide the relevant documentation as required by the terminal.
He said, “When the vessel arrives, the discharge operation is carried out and the product is received in the relevant tanks.”
“This procedure is the standard procedure of the terminal and it has been applied to all the traders operating with Gam Petroleum,” he expounded.
