Gambian commission probes ex-president's spending

By Mustapha K. Darboe

BANJUL, Gambia (AA) - As investigations into financial dealings of Gambia’s former President Yahya Jammeh entered their third week, public institutions and companies have alleged millions of dollars were taken from them through executive directives and illegal businesses.

Transactions from bank accounts, public enterprises and the State House have shown millions of dollars in public monies being withdrawn on the orders of Jammeh and paid to various individuals and companies the former president himself was affiliated with.

The nature of the revelations have shocked the small West African nation. Jammeh, a former military strongmen, ruled the country for 22 years before leaving power at the start of 2017.

Sidi Sanneh, a Gambian political activist and blogger who served Jammeh as a diplomat and minister, said the former leader should be tried for “economic crimes”.

“Anyone implicated in the illegal use of public resources must face justice. Yahya Jammeh, civil servants and Jammeh's business partners must also face justice,” Sanneh said.

Sanneh said the Gambian government should take over Jammeh’s native village of Kanilai and turn it into a military base because of his use of taxpayers’ monies in developing the small settlement.

-Inquiry

A Commission of Inquiry, which has received the testimonies of over a dozen people, including bank directors and former senior government officials, has found that the state opened an account with commercial banks to save tax revenues which should have gone to the Central Bank.

The amount saved in two “tax recovery” accounts neared 100 million dalasi ($2 million), all of which was withdrawn on the orders of Jammeh without the correct procedures or documentation.

In a more recent revelation on Wednesday, the acting managing director of the Gambia Port Authority, Ousman Jobarteh, testified before the Commission that the public institution gave Jammeh various unpaid loans worth over 34 million dalasi (close to $750,000).

Jobarteh said these loans were taken from the institution on the verbal instruction of Jammeh.

The monies were spent on, among other things, the construction of a mini stadium at Jammeh’s home village of Kanilai, Jobarteh said.

A former secretary general under Jammeh, Momodou Sabally, told the Commission on Monday that most of the withdrawals involving Jammeh were 90 percent verbal instructions, leaving behind little trace of his involvement.

“Jammeh was a very powerful man,” Sabally said when asked if they did not know withdrawing public monies upon executive directives was illegal.

-Shock

Meanwhile, a former managing director of Gambia’s National Petroleum Corporation, Momodou Badjie, on Tuesday told the Commission that the corporation -- on Jammeh’s orders -- spent over 600,000 dalasi ($13,054) to purchase 11 air tickets for the late Jamaican musician, Frankie Paul.

Badjie spoke of two other requests they received from Jammeh to withdraw $1 million, and $45,300 respectively.

Other withdrawals from the same public company included $20,000 at one point, $303,000 at another time and a further $500,000 plus a local-currency withdrawal amounting to 10 million dalasi ($217,476).

These revelations have brought to light a system of political patronage that Jammeh, who claimed to have been receiving his money from “Allah’s bank”, established in his two-decade rule.

Gambians are expressing shock at the nature of Jammeh’s dealings with public corporations and how certain businessmen have profited from it.

A number of businesspeople, including Jammeh’s own brother Ansumana Jammeh, and leading banks in the country have so far been called to the Commission.

Jammeh’s Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction Party has not responded to the revelations being made at the Commission but its interim leader, Tombong Jatta, has called the freezing of his accounts a “witch hunt”.