Africa-Press – Gambia. Ebrima Sillah, Minister of Works, Transport, and Infrastructure, has clarified that his ministry was not involved in the awarding of the contract or the selection of the consultant for The Gambia’s embassy project in Bissau. His ministry’s involvement only began after the National Assembly requested an assessment of the embassy building.
“We did a review of the entire process; remember that when this contract was being awarded, the Ministry of Works was not involved. So it was only at the request of the National Assembly to do a proper assessment of the building last year that we came in and then provided the opinion on the state of the building and also the issues inherent in the contract,” Minister Sillah explained.
Regarding land ownership, Minister Sillah revealed that no official documentation confirming ownership was found during their review. However, he noted the existence of a communiqué between the Governments of The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau.
“When we did the review, we did not see anywhere regarding the ownership of the land, although we have seen a communiqué where the government of the Gambia and the government of Guinea-Bissau signed a reciprocal agreement. Whether that land in question has proper documentation in the name of the Gambia is something that we cannot verify; that is why we are recommending that, before constructing, we have to establish the ownership of the land,” he stated.
The minister also noted a lack of evidence showing that proper procurement procedures or due diligence were followed during the project.
“In the case of Bissau, because we were not involved, there is no evidence in the records that a committee was set up to go through a proper procurement process, that due diligence was done on the contractor, that quality assurance measures were taken on even the building itself. So those are the issues that we have found out,” he stated.
On the condition of the embassy building, Minister Sillah declared that the structure is beyond repair and recommended demolition.“With the current state of the building, it will take nearly or more than the cost of the project to renovate or rehabilitate the building because if you are going to renovate that building, you are better off building a new building because it will cost so much money, and it can lead to so many controversies, Then we are recommending, and we agree with the committee that let us demolish that one and build a new building,” he affirmed.
When questioned about potential liabilities of the contractor or consultant, Minister Sillah noted the challenges of accountability given the project’s age.
“This is like almost 20 years ago. We don’t know whether that company is even still in existence, or we don’t know whether the consultant is also still in Bissau,” he explained.
Regarding the absence of names of those involved in the project, the minister indicated that such matters fall under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“My understanding was that this was supposed to be a joint session between me and the Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs. And clearly the relegation of duty and how some of those issues were conducted were supposed to be answered by the Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs because as I said, we were not part of the procurement process,” Minister Sillah concluded.
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