In an appearance before the National Assembly Special Select Committee on Tuesday, Janneh Commission Commissioner Abioseh George described the steps taken in the sale and disposal of former President Yahya Jammeh’s assets.
According to Ms. George’s testimony before the panel, the commission had prepared formal procedures to guarantee an orderly and transparent process because it had foreseen the need to sell a variety of government-owned goods, such as tractors and livestock.
“In terms of the selling, we knew that we would have to deal with sales at some point of various items, not just tractors,” Ms. George said. “So the then secretary, based on meetings we had, was advised to develop a process for the disposal of items that would cover everything. So a process was developed that was shared, and everyone gave their input, and we adopted it.”
She emphasized the process’s goal to maintain transparency throughout, characterizing it as a thorough manual for carrying out sales from preliminary planning to banking of proceeds.
“Yes, the steps were heeded to, I think,” Ms. George said in response to counsel Dibba’s question regarding whether the procedures were regularly followed during the first stage of the sale. I only remember that the banking component was not entirely intact.
She testified that some minor changes were made to the procedures during the second stage of the process. Due to a shortage of cashiers at the time, they turned to the Central Bank for assistance rather than the secretariat staff to handle cash transactions. In the end, they were able to handle this aspect with assistance from the Accountant General’s office, which lessened their dependency on banking personnel.
She also mentioned that the then-secretary, Alhagie Mamadi Kurang, worked with a group of accountants to prepare a report following the sales. After going over the records, which included reserve prices and receipts, the team pointed out any instances in which items were sold for less than the reserve, which was appropriately discussed.
She also mentioned that the commission had received reports that tractors were being eaten, with parts taken out, which caused the assets’ value to decline. In order to avoid waste, the main goal was to recover as much value as possible. The sales were guided by the reserve price as a benchmark.
