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Gambia: GPPA Director General Re-Appears in Court

Howsoon Semega Janneh, acting Director General of The Gambia Public Procurement Authority (GPPA) on Wednesday, April 4th, ended his testimony in a cross-examination in the trial of Pa Sallah Jeng, suspended Major of Banjul. Mr. Jeng is facing six count charges.

Appearing at the High Court before Justice S. M. Monageng, Mr. Semega Janneh said their mandate is to correspond with accounting officers who are chairs of the contract committee of a particular procuring organization.

Semega Janneh said that a misunderstanding with the Banjul City Council (BCC) led them to correspond with both the Major and the Chief executive officer. It was finally resolved that the accounting officer of the contract committee at BCC is the Chief executive officer and not the Major, he told the court.

He said that the last procurement request they had from the BCC was from the Major and it emerged from there that it was not him.

The GPPA approved the purchase of a towing ambulance requested by the Major, he said.

Regarding the buying of gabbage collectors, Semega Janneh said they dealt with only the Chief executive, but did not approve the buying since the gabbage collectors were already purchased.

According to him the GPPA has a prerogative to refuse or permit the procurement request of a certain procuring body. The GPPA Act he said, provides that no organization should be involved in a procurement which has not been approved by the authority.

Mr. Semega Janneh admitted that the towing ambulance is a specialized vehicle, and the GPPA had not made any investigation to see if they are readily available in the market to determine whether their purchase on a single source tender was legitimate. He added that the gabbage collectors' vehicles are also specialize vehicles, and the GPPA do not know if they were available in the market.

Quizzed further by the defence whether the purchase of the gabbage collectors by BCC was necessary since the council paid D1, 000 daily to clear heaps of gabbage, Semega Janneh asserted by saying that the responsibility of informing the GPPA lies with the chairs of the contract committee and in BCC's case where there was no such committee, it is the chief executive officer's role.

Semega Janneh said that the general penalty for not abiding by the act is that GPPA can authorize another procuring body to procure on behalf of the defaulting body. He said that they may even order compensation to victims and other penalties which he could not remember in court.

Meanwhile, the case was adjourned marking the end of tesmonies from prosecution witnesses. The defence said they will submit a "no case to answer" brief on April 18th which is to be replied by the state on April 30th. The defence will refile a written reply to the state's submission after which the case will be heard in court on May 3rd.