By: Kebba AF Touray
The joint committee on Public Enterprise Committee (PEC) and the Finance and Public Accounts Committee (FPAC) on Monday, 5th August 2024, held its inaugural meeting to set about its inquiry into the petroleum product which was reportedly imported by an alleged unlicensed dealer.
The said product is valued at US$30 Million which is approximately Two Billion and Forty Million Dalasi (D2,040,000,000).
The said product is reported to have a total of 36,953,614 metric tons of petroleum products, and is reported to have landed at the shores of the Gambia in 2023.
Hon. Jawara earlier last month laid a motion for the National Assembly to set up an inquiry committee to probe into the matter.
Hon. Jawara, while moving the motion, expressed concern that the Gambia is a tax based economy, saying both companies allegedly failed to pay tax on the transaction and there is no evidence of any income from the proceeds of the sales of the products.
He noted that the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) in its intervention on the said products, indicated that there was trading on related products in the country without due process through bank transactions at ECOBANK and Access Bank Gambia Limited.
He informed the assembly that during the investigation, one Mr. Aurimas Steblys was arrested and handed over to the police in Banjul for questioning and an 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 are alleged to have been receiving kickbacks (bribes) of D600,000.00 monthly, which shows that every end of month, the said amount is withdrawn from Access Bank Account No.0010110000555 by one Mr.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 said “Expressing 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”.
“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 ECOBank 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.
During the debate on Monday, 22 July 2024, National Assembly Members referred and committed the motion to the said joint committee on PEC and FPAC, to probe into the matter and report back to the plenary.
As it coincided with the climax of the second ordinary session, during which the motion was tabled, the joint committee was granted leave by the plenary to sit during the current recess period of the assembly to conduct the said findings and report to the plenary during the coming ordinary session.
The joint committee thus on Monday 5th August held its inaugural meeting to devise rules by which it will pursue the said inquiry.
