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Gambia: Maimuna Taal Acquitted, Discharged

The former Director-General of the Gambia Civil Aviation Authority, Ms. Maimuna Taal, yesterday walked out of the Banjul High Court free.

Ms. Taal was on Wednesday exonerated from seven-count charges of economic crimes leveled against her by the State.

In handing down her ruling before a hushed courtroom, Justice Monageng, a Zimbabwean-born Gambia high court judge, pointed out that Ms. Taal could not be guilty for receiving allowance during the Airport improvement project because she was part of the coordinating team for the project and was therefore entitled to an allowance likewise other project coordinators.

According to Justice Monageng, most of the prosecution witnesses have concurred in their testimonies that Ms. Taal was entitled to receive allowance. She pointed out that she could not see how the allocation of allowance to Taal could affect the financial base of the Civil Aviation since other project coordinators were also receiving allowances. The prosecution, she went on, have failed to prove their case against the accused for embezzling money from the Airport improvement project.

Still delivering her ruling, the high court judge posited that the prosecution have also failed to convince the court that Ms. Taal had caused the GCAA, a financial loss by receiving telephone allowance since her co-coordinators were also benefiting from the same.

She pointed out that none of the prosecution witnesses had testified to the court that the accused did commit an offence in count three where she was accused of subdividing the airport improvement project in four phases as she wasn’t a member of the Contracts Committee. For Justice Monageng, financial loss should not be based on assertions but facts.

According to her, the 6th prosecution witness had exonerated Ms. Taal since, according to the witness, all procedures were followed during the awarding of the contract for the improvement project. Even the prosecution witness, she added, had pointed out that the contract committee chairman was the one responsible for informing the Gambia Public Procurement Authority with regards awarding the contract for the improvement project and not otherwise. Ms. Monageng stated that there was no proof that Ms Taal had abused her office in awarding the contract to the contractors, adding that it was the contract committee that was responsible for tendering and awarding the contract to contractors. She said the prosecution witness had exonerated Taal of the charge of abusing her office.

She finally ruled that the court had found out that Ms. Taal had no case to answer and therefore struck out the seven-count charges against her.