By Makutu Manneh
Honourable Musa Cham, a councillor for London Corner Ward in Serrekunda from 2018 to 2022 on Monday, 18 November 2024 testified before the Local Government Commission of Inquiry. He is now a member of the National Assembly representing Serrekunda Constituency.
The Commission is tasked to conduct a full and impartial investigation into local government councils’ financial and administrative operations between May 2018 and January 2023.
Honourable Cham’s statement dated 17 September 2024 was tendered and admitted in evidence. He said that as a councillor, he had both executive and legislative functions.
Honourable Cham said during his tenure as a councillor, he was in the Foreign Relations, Tourism, Arts and Culture sub-committee as the chairperson of the Committee. When asked about the challenges of the committee, he said their recommendations were not implemented. He was asked to cite an example of a recommendation of the committee that was not implemented. He mentioned that he observed that during Christmas and other festive periods, so many minors go around the Senegambia area, which is risky because the minors are vulnerable. He said he moved a motion that was passed by the Arts and Culture Committee for each ward to be allocated funds to implement their initiatives to minimize that. He added that it was part of the budget of the KMC, but it was not implemented.
“It was budgeted for, but not implemented,” he said.
Cham further testified that he was the one who moved the motion for the establishment of the Accounts Committee. He added that the committee was dysfunctional. He testified that the internal auditor of the KMC resigned with the claim that he was not able to prepare audit reports. Cham said he proposed for meetings, but the committee would not sit with the excuse that the internal auditor had resigned.
“The members of the setup led to the committee being dysfunctional,” Cham said.
Asked to elaborate, he explained that he moved two motions at the general council (KMC) for the establishment of the revenue committee and the accounts committee. He said Mayor Talib Bensouda selected the members of the Committee during the voting and he was one of the nominees to chair the committee. He added that the members voted based on party lines and Councillor Lamin K. Jammeh of Bakoteh was elected. He stressed that only 2 of them in that committee were not members of the United Democratic Party (UDP).
“Best practice dictates that such committees should be headed by the minority,” Honourable Cham opined.
On how the projects of his ward were designed, he said his people converged at the Serrekunda Lower Basic School to discuss their problems and the community development officials from the KMC took note. He testified that he received ward development allocation from the KMC only three (3) times. He explained that the KMC transferred the funds into the ward development account. He informed the Commission that he did the handing over of the account to the clerk of the Council, the project implementation, and other documents. This included the retirement documents of the expenses made. He stated that the clerk of the Council had all the documents, but he was requested to go to the clerk and get them from him.
He was taken back to the issue of deciding based on partisan lines. The witness cited the incident involving the former deputy mayor who was involved in an alleged scandal which at the time circulated online. The deputy mayor had to resign. Cham said he pushed a motion for a committee to be constituted, which should not be partisan and capable of digging deep. He added that the decision was made based on political party lines.
He was asked about a market exercise of 2018 in which 26 councillors were paid Ten Thousand Dalasi (D10,000). The witness testified that he was paid D10,000, but he only conducted the exercise for three (3) days. He testified that he did his exercise in his constituency – Serrekunda and London Corner.
“I have an issue with the number of days,” Cham said while looking at the attendance registers, adding “I did not do the exercise for the number of days stated here.”
He said after that he went to the general council and deliberated on his findings. He added that the councillors each made deliberation of their findings. Cham testified that he signed the attendance register but he did the exercise for only 3 days. He explained that the 25 days was the timeline for the exercise, but he did it within 3 days. He informed the Commission that he is prepared to refund the D10,000 payment he received if the payment is deemed unlawful.
Cham was asked about the Tobaski and Koriteh honorariums that were paid to Councillors. He testified that he cannot remember that. Instead, he was paid transport fares for trainings he attended.
Cham, in response to the question asked by Commissioner Sukai Secka-Sagnia, said the Arts Committee used to review requests for support from individuals and organisations and then make recommendations. He added that some of them were supportive of their initiatives.
