Civil society groups have renewed pressure on the government to act on findings concerning the disposal of assets linked to former President Yahya Jammeh, calling for independent investigations, a forensic audit and greater public disclosure.
The organizations made the demands on Friday while presenting a joint position paper on the report of the National Assembly Special Select Committee, which examined the sale and disposal of assets identified through the Janneh Commission’s investigation into Jammeh’s financial affairs.
Ajie Fatou Bah of the Edward Francis Small Centre for Rights and Justice, who read the statement, said individuals and institutions implicated in the parliamentary report should be subjected to independent and impartial investigations.
Where investigations establish sufficient evidence of wrongdoing, the groups called for appropriate administrative, civil or criminal proceedings.
A major part of their proposal is a nationwide forensic audit covering assets recovered, managed, allocated or disposed of following the Janneh Commission’s findings.
The organizations want the audit to establish what assets were recovered, how they were valued, where they went, who benefited from their disposal and how much money was generated. They said any losses suffered by the state should be identified and efforts made to recover the funds or assets.
The groups are also demanding a publicly accessible national register of recovered Jammeh-era assets.
Such a register, they said, should provide information on each asset’s current status, ownership arrangements, disposal outcome and revenue generated. They argued that public access to the information would help resolve longstanding questions about the fate of assets recovered after Jammeh’s departure and restore confidence in the process.
The organizations said the controversy also exposed weaknesses in the country’s broader system for managing public property.
They proposed digitizing government records, strengthening asset registries and oversight bodies, and establishing a centralized professional institution to oversee the recovery and management of public assets.
According to the groups, such reforms would reduce fragmentation among state institutions while improving record-keeping and establishing clearer responsibility for assets taken into government custody.
They also want the government to establish a mechanism for tracking the implementation of the Special Select Committee’s recommendations rather than allowing them to remain on paper.
“We call for the establishment of a structured implementation framework for the SSC recommendations, including clear timelines and designated responsible institutions,” Bah said.
The demands come almost a decade after Jammeh left office and as questions remain over the management and disposal of assets identified during the post-Jammeh accountability process.
For the civil society organizations, the issue is no longer limited to determining what happened to individual assets. They argue that the government must also demonstrate that institutions responsible for public property have the systems, records and oversight necessary to prevent similar controversies in the future.
The groups said implementing the parliamentary recommendations would provide an opportunity to strengthen public-asset management and demonstrate the government’s commitment to transparency and responsible stewardship of state resources.
