The former board chairman of the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital (EFSTH), Dr. Adama Sallah, revealed that just before he left, almost D27 million that was supposed to be used for medical equipment vanished.
He claims that Dr. Abubacarr Jagne, the deputy medical director, took the money out of the hospital’s accounts.
According to Dr. Sallah, the hospital is currently updating its lab space and intends to use World Bank funds to buy cutting-edge technology.
For some reason, the Deputy CMD was chosen to travel to Senegal to engage in negotiations with the suppliers. He just completes basic training in the lab; he is not a lab guy. The lab head was among the individuals in the lab who were specialists in laboratory science. You aren’t personally involved, though. He visited Senegal on numerous occasions. The sum at stake was astronomically large—it was close to three million dollars. Why was Dr. Jagne the only one gallivanting from here and Dakar? Moreover, why sole sourcing? He asked.
Dr. Sallah disclosed that the purchased equipment was subpar. He added that former CMD Dr. Nyang had negotiated with EBOT, a reputable supplier of lab equipment, before the purchase, and that EBOT had referred him to their Senegalese agent. Following discussions, EBOT decided to sell straight to EFSTH, and D27 million was set aside for the acquisition. The Gambia Public Procurement Authority’s (GPPA) approval for single sourcing was the only thing left to do.
“EBOT pointed him in the direction of their Senegalese representative. After some haggling, EBOT agreed to sell directly to EFSTH, thanks to Dr. Nyang. The money was accessible when everything was processed. For that, some D27 million dalasis was set aside. They only required GPPA approval to use single sourcing. After speaking with the GPPA, they were prepared to approve single sourcing because they believed the requirement was legitimate. Unfortunately, Dr. Nyang was swiftly and formally dismissed from his job at the relevant moment. and Aljafari took its position,” he clarified.
According to Dr. Nyang, the file was given to Dr. Jagne for processing, Dr. Sallah said.
When he went to GPPA, they told him there was no issue because the paperwork had already been processed to that point. They informed him that approval is all that is required to carry out single sourcing. However, for some reason, Dr. Jagne, the Deputy CMD, did nothing and the file was set aside. He then hopped over to the World Bank, which I believe came to finance the lab’s equipment. Thus, no one ever made the other purchase. However, what became of the D27 million? There was no clear explanation of what they did with that money until I left,” he said.
Dr. Sallah disclosed in a different corruption charge that the Deputy CMD went to Ghana to buy medical supplies. This wrongdoing was discovered because he used his personal bank account in Ghana to make the payment instead of the supplier’s bank account.
They began accusing one another. The CMD actually revealed that they were to purchase theater lighting and beds in Ghana. His deputy found the suppliers on his own and provided them with a bank account to make the payment, claiming it was his bank account but it was actually his. To make matters worse, when these suppliers go from Ghana, the lambs arrived as the store’s recipients indicated, but the theater bed—the priciest item—never arrived, despite the fact that it was valued thousands of dollars,” he claimed.
Additionally, Dr. Sallah charged that Dr. Jagne had asked a Syrian biomedical technician for a $25,000 payment in return for a contract to renovate the hospital’s imaging center.
“Dr. Sallah, the CMD, told me that the Syrian Biomedical Technician told him that Dr. Jagne had essentially asked for a $25,000 bribe in order to be awarded the repair contract. “The guy just couldn’t come up with anything,” he claimed when I asked him why he never brought it up and why he did nothing.
Additionally, he said that money meant to buy food for patients suffering from multidrug-resistant tuberculosis had been embezzled.
Therefore, it was determined at the Central Medical Store level that funds should be set aside for the purchase of certain food products for those patients through the worldwide fund. It was between D27,000 and D30,000, I believe. The Deputy CMD stated that the patients concerned had passed away after it came to the hospital account. He claimed that the CMD had asked to have the funds delivered to him. He took the form in person with the intention of presenting it to the CMD, but when confronted, the CMD claimed to be unaware of the money, Dr. Sallah informed Kerr Fatou.
Former Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital (EFSTH) Board Chairman Dr. Adama Sallah was fired when he first exposed a corruption problem involving hospital employees on Freedom Radio. The government launched an investigation into the situation after he was fired, but the results have not yet been released.
