Before the Local Government Commission of Inquiry, Malamin I.L. Bojang, the chairman of the Kerewan Area Council from 2018 to 2023, acknowledged that he neglected to address procurement irregularities while in office.
During his interrogation, Lead Counsel Patrick Gomez brought up the Gambia Public Procurement Authority’s (2022) compliance report, which prompted Bojang to make the admission. According to the report, the council completed 662 procurement transactions totaling D9,770,545.26; 650 of these were completed through single sourcing, and only 12 of these were handled through requests for quotes.
Counsel Gomez stated, “Therefore, this is not a competitive process.” “Because they will simply go and obtain three quotes, even for this quotation request. Counsel Gomez informed Bojang that occasionally they are the ones who bring these false sources, defeating the purpose.
He underlined that in order to guarantee openness and value for the money, procurement should include competitive bidding and independent evaluations. “This ought to be concerning,” Gomez informed the former chairman.
In his first response, Bojang stated that he left handling procurement-related matters to the council’s procurement officer, whom he characterized as “very strict.” But Gomez noted that the real decision-makers were the finance director and the chief executive officer, who were both higher up than the procurement officer.
“There will be no problem with their strictness if they are not empowered,” Gomez contended.
Bojang acquiesced, accepting the counsel’s conclusion and admitting that the council’s procurement procedures lacked market research, transparency, and competition. In response to a direct question about whether or not these issues were ever addressed during his tenure, Bojang acknowledged that they ought to have been.
Bojang also bemoaned in his testimony what he called the area council chairpersons’ limited authority. He claimed that the act was biased in assigning the Chairman responsibility. Furthermore, the Act only makes one reference to the chairman and concentrates on the functions of the general council, CEO, and minister.
Counsel Gomez said he had no concerns about the witness’s honesty but asked him to let the commission know if he thought the council chairman’s authority was limited. He urged him to make his case to the commissioners in an understandable manner.
Since the chairman is in charge of the meeting, he is unable to impose any sanctions during council sessions. Does the chairman have the authority to expel someone who misbehaves, he asked?
Chairmen have a lot of power, including the ability to establish standing orders, Gomez explained, even though they are not able to enforce penalties. Gomez highlighted that, when properly interpreted and implemented, Section 33 of the Local Government Act gives chairpersons the tools they need to govern successfully.
Section 33 of the Local Government Act outlines the rules of procedure. “This is not just your problem; most of us assume positions we don’t read because we don’t have the culture of reading,” Counsel Gomez stated.
Bojang thanked the counsel for the clarification after the section was read aloud to him.
