The disputed payment of D795,000 in legal fees by the Banjul City Council (BCC) in a case involving the personal actions of the city’s mayor was raised during the testimony of former Chief Executive Officer Mustapha Batchilly before the Local Government Commission of Inquiry on Wednesday, July 3, 2025.
The special audit into BCC’s financial activities for 2021 and 2022 flagged the payment to lawyer Sasum Sillah, who represented the mayor in a suit brought by civil society groups over her attestation of voter cards. Sillah is also the retained lawyer for the BCC. Auditors noted that BCC was not a party to the suit, raising concerns about the appropriateness of public funds being used for the mayor’s private legal defence.
Lead Counsel Patrick Gomez confronted Batchilly: “Who negotiated the legal fees?”
“The Mayor,” Batchilly replied.
“Was this taken to the council?” Gomez asked.
“No, it was not taken to the council,” the witness answered.
Gomez emphasised that the title of mayor should not be conflated with the institution of BCC. “The BCC can sue and be sued, and the Mayor can sue and be sued. They are not the same,” he said. When asked if it was proper for the mayor to negotiate legal fees, Batchilly responded, “No.”
Gomez pointed out that the payment was unauthorised, calling it a misrepresentation of institutional responsibility and misuse of council funds. The Gambia Participates and two other civil society organisations sued the Mayor for her lack of authority to issue attestations to people to enable them to get a voter card. The decision of the court went against the Mayor, as she lost the case.
The inquiry also examined a D1.5 million withdrawal that auditors said was unaccounted for. Batchilly said the transaction was related to a contract signed between BCC and a private firm, SABS, which was brought in to enhance revenue collection. He testified that SABS was introduced by former finance director Momodou Camara and was expected to explore new revenue streams. However, Batchilly said the company ended up collecting from BCC’s traditional revenue sources.
“Why do you have to contract a company when it is not bringing anything new to the table?” Commission Chairperson Jainaba Bah asked.
Camara claimed in his statement that SABS collected D25 million in its first year. Batchilly challenged this, saying the figure should have been higher if new revenue streams were truly tapped. Gomez dismissed Camara’s claim that SABS was involved in debt collection and follow-ups, stating, “SABS was paid over D3 million for doing nothing.”
Batchilly said the idea was for SABS to enhance revenue collection to match the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) in terms of revenue collection. Gomez said that was not the intention because there was no due diligence done. Batchilly said they paid SABS and only came to realise that they did not bring anything new because they were tapping from their conventional revenue lines. Gomez said the claim was baseless.
The auditors also raised concerns over a D968,000 construction contract at Albert Market, noting an overpayment of D100,000. Batchilly requested time to retrieve documentation related to that project.
Batchilly said he was not part of the people who submitted the management response to the audit query. He requested time from the Commission to get the information and provide it based on the audit queries. He stated that he is not happy with the management response submitted by the BCC.
D100,000 was paid to Smart Technology as a scholarship from the BCC accounts. Batchilly said this came about after the BCC received their applications. He added that the payment was made directly to the institution (Smart Technology). The Commission requested Batchilly to provide the details of all scholarships issued by the BCC from 2018 to 2023.
“You were paying staff allowance for performing their duties?” Gomez asked.
Batchilly said he was doing that to motivate them. Gomez said the Commission would give him time to come back to discuss the legality of the payment.
Batchilly said the BCC does not do bank reconciliation. He added that Camara informed him that he cannot do bank reconciliation. He stated that the BCC hired someone to do the bank reconciliations, and the person was paid.
Batchilly was asked to bring all the allowances paid to the Steering Committee for the £3.1 million Ostend-Banjul Project. He was asked why the allowances were increased. He said it was in line with the budget and promised to get both the budget and the policies. He was also asked to bring all other related documents.
D1.3 million was paid to Dem’s Trading for the purchase of coconut seedlings. The auditors said the company was incompetent. Batchilly agreed.
