By: Kebba AF Touray
The Public Petitions Committee has recommended for the Chairman of the Gambia Tourism Board Chairman to be reprimanded.
The Committee also tasked its sister committee of Finance and Public Accounts Committee (FPAC) and the National Audit Office (NAO) to inquire into the contribution of Nine Hundred Thousand Dalasi (D900,000) by Construct Company LTD to the Gambia Tourism Board (GT Board).
The said payment was made on the GT Board Head Office complex contractual agreement.
The Petitions Committee made this and other recommendations on Thursday, 14 March 2024, in its report on the petition filed to the committee by the staff of the Gambia Tourism Board, tabled by the Chairperson of the Committee, Hon. Suwaibou Touray.
This report reveals the findings of the Committee on some serious allegations at the Gambia Tourism Board, the institution created to manage the tourism industry in the country.
On Eco-lodges, Touray said, “The Petition Committee recommended that the Chairman of the Contracts Committee should be reprimanded for mis-guiding the Contract committee members by giving a wrong analysis of the financial performances which eventually affected the scoring or the evaluation process”.
He also told the assembly that the petition committee also recommended that its sister committee of the FPAC and NAO, within 90 days, should inquire into the rental contribution of D900,000 by Construct Company Ltd to GT Board to ascertain that it is properly accounted for through the bank statement and reflected in the accounts.
Touray reported that there is need to provide more justifications from the GT Board and the Honourable Minister of Tourism for making payments to Construct Company Ltd in 2018 and 2019.
He said: “This is because the Minister cancelled the contract in 2017. It should, henceforth, be discouraged that once a new Government comes in, all contracts of the previous government are either cancelled or entirely modified without conducting a cost-benefit analysis.”
“This was done to give favor to Lerr Group Company. Lerr Financial Performance shows that the company is overtrading and has some Liquidity issues which he failed to do as the Director of Finance and Administration doubling as the Chairman of the Contracts Committee,” Touray said.
He also stated that the Finance and Public Accounts Committee is recommended by the Petitions committee to investigate further, who gave the authority to build a hotel at Barra that was eventually abandoned, costing millions.
Chairperson Touray said that the Petition committee recommended that GT Board needs to act by paying the suppliers for the materials they would need without any further delay and no additional changes in design.
“The Committee Recommended that the contractual agreement should be revisited in order to establish facts that surround the whole contractor’s underperformance, ascertain issues surrounding the establishment of the proposed Sir Dawda Kairaba Hotel in Barra,” he said.
Hon. Touray also said that the committee recommended that the contractor needs to provide that he has paid VAT on the amount that has been disbursed to him as the contract amount included VAT (15%) which should have been paid to GRA or paid before the end of the contract by GT Board by deducting it from the final payment.
The Petitions Committee recommended that the FPAC further investigate the GPPA’s reason for approval to GT Board regarding the lots to be given to different contractors instead of one contractor
He said that the committee also recommended that a property evaluator be identified to value the current cost investment on the sites, how much money has been invested and the contractor to refund the full balance of the money paid to him.
“Henceforth, since the Lerr Group has seriously underperformed in Government contracts, they should not be awarded contracts in the future,” he said.
