By Kebba AF Touray
The Public Enterprise Committee (PEC) of the National Assembly has resolved to summon the Office of the Vice President and Finance Ministry, on the Euro 9.8 Million used to purchase 70 buses for the Gambia Transport Service Company (GTSC).
This is approximately Six Hundred and Eighty-Six Million Dalasi (D686,000,000).
The committee resolved this on Monday, 3 February 2025, during its engagement with the Social Security and Housing Finance Corporation (SSHFC) and the GTSC at the National Assembly.
This decision came following an intense engagement of the committee members with the management of both SSHFC and GTSC, on the said expended amount, which as explained by SSHFC and GTSC, is still not recovered.
According to the officials, the government initially directed them to purchase 50 fleets and subsequently asked them to purchase another 20 fleets, on condition that the government would refund the money.
They informed PEC they fulfilled their part of the bargain, but the government is still defaulting in fulfilling their part of the bargain.
The engagement with the SSHFC and GTSC was subsequently suspended, and PEC officials held an internal discussion on the way forward on the matter.
The Chairperson of the PEC, Hon. Lamin J Sanneh, who is also the National Assembly Member for Brikama South, in a post-engagement interview with this medium, explained that the decision of the committee was born out of the severity of the issue, which has been highlighted by auditors, in their audit report.
“We have discussed and agreed on a position with regard to the procedures. Primarily, we are adjourning till 17 February 2025, in order to invite the Vice President’s Office, Finance Minister, and the representative of the State-Owned Enterprise Commission, due to the severity of the content of the report,” said Hon. Sanneh.
He continued to say that they have to strategically look at how they can converge, discuss and chart the way forward on how the money is going to be recovered, and “that’s primarily our intention of adjourning”.
He highlighted the primary severity issue highlighted in the report, which is highly rated by auditors, and “that is the money the SSHFC used to buy buses for GTSC. Initially, the government sent a directive that they should buy these buses. They (Government) claimed 100 buses, but they (SSHFC) ended up buying 70 buses, at a tune of 9.8 Million Euros”.
The government, he said later sent in a letter requesting that the payment mode be redirected to GTSC, which the GTSC doesn’t have that capacity.
The SSHFC, he said during their engagement, made them understand that they have written to the government, requesting payment, because they they have a contract with the government.
“That is why we want to bring in the entities to verify, how do we make sure that, because in his previous statement, clarified that the GTSC is a subsidiary of SSHFC. So, definitely, we want to bring all of them together to see which is which and what decision we are going to take,” added Chairperson Sanneh.