Open Gambia Platform received a report from an anonymous contact updating us on a recent case between the Barrow administration and the Gambia Civil Aviation Authority. The case advances the commercial interest of NIRO Company against the Gambia International Airlines GIA, the State-owned Enterprise, and the Public interest, neglecting operational safety and the well-being of passengers, which has a broader negative impact on the conducive environment of Banjul International Airport.
The Aviation Authority contact explained that a special flight registration, P4BFH, arrived at Banjul International Airport BIA at 16:40 on 30 January 2025 from Libreville. The flight brought the Vice President of Gabon with his delegation, who were received at the foot of the aircraft by their hosts, the Gambia Vice President Muhammed BS Jallow and Foreign Minister Mr Tangara.
On arrival, GIA and the Niro company were on the ground to provide ground-handling services; NIRO staff had already found GIA staff in a position to discharge their services when they stood behind the yellow line. This is unusual because GIA is responsible for all state ground handling, including flights to visit state dignitaries. GIA is the official red carpet custodian of state functions and handles VIP services.
The presence of NIRO led to serious confusion. However, GIA amicably solved this, making it clear to the NIRO staff that it was their responsibility to handle the Special flight. Immediately, the NIRO company employees withdrew because GIA took its stand. Marshalling the aircraft to park, rolling out the red carpet, offloading luggage, and cleaning the entire aircraft.
Close to the completion of their work, when they were about to hand their invoice to the Flight Captain, GIA staff and other officers on the scene were dismayed because the captain of the special flight instructed GIA to stop providing flight handling services and hand them over to NIRO Company because he had received directives from above, (which the GIA staff assume was from the Gambian Vice President given that President Barrow and most of his Cabinet ministers own a significant share in NIRO Company. This is a known fact.
Even after GIA staff repeatedly told the captain they had already provided all the services due and that their company was mandated to handle state flight arrivals and departures, the flight captain insisted that he had been instructed to deal with NIRO. This led to GIA staff walking away from their contractual duties after completing the services for NIRO to benefit while the income due to GIA/ the government was lost. GIA staff are apprehensive that this latest act is a precedent and that another area of service they provide will be permanently removed and transferred to NIRO. This serves the personal & collective interests of the Barrow Cabal.
The incident is the latest evidence of how the Barrow administration abuses its authority to influence its business interests. By empowering NIRO Corporation to take over all operations at BIA, the administration disadvantages the state-owned enterprise against the national interest. They are not promoting an open competitive market, a policy that should guarantee a level playing field for all; GIA is confident that with an open market environment and a level playing field, they would maintain their lead with a much more significant share of the market in the Aviation sector.
Given these glaring facts, GIA staff are sure the government secretly created the NIRO handling company to put GIA’s state-owned enterprise out of business. This is akin to giving away state enterprises like the Port Authority and Ferry Service to Turkish companies for their illicit personal benefits.
REPORT OF THE AFTERMATH OF THE INCIDENT!
On Wednesday, the 05 of February 2025, After the significant chaotic incident, the BIA operators held a Crisis Stakeholders Meeting chaired by the GCAA Commercial Director, Omar OB Njie, to investigate the reasons that led to chaos on the arrival of the Gabon Vice President with both ground handling companies, GIA and Niro, which caused confusion and embarrassment and posed a potential security threat, whiles considering how to prevent such a serious incident from reoccurring in the future.
The Stakeholders who attended the meeting were the airport security adviser, the director of commerce GCAA, the two ground handling company reps of GIA, Niro company, and other units from all security sectors operating within the airport.
During the stakeholder meeting, the participants evaluated all the ground-handling services for the state and its dignitaries. They unanimously agreed, except for the commercial Director of GCAA, that all state functions should not be given to a private company at the expense of the state enterprise. More so, the established protocols mandate that GIA, the state-owned enterprise, is the custodian of the VIP Red Carpet and the Red Carpeted Step. It would be unethical and commercially unfair to GIA to provide the required state facilities only for NIRO company to be the commercial beneficiary.
It’s important to highlight the failure of Omar OB Njie, Commercial Director of GCAA, to support the logical conclusion arrived at by their counterpart with the empirical evidence provided that the established protocols to the effect that GIA, as the State-Owned enterprise, has the mandate and ownership of the equipment for service delivery for state flights. Does Mr Njie’s conflicting position provide evidence of the oversight Institution favouring NIRO against the GIA?
In Conclusion, the resolutions were adopted for the stakeholder’s crisis meeting. The airport security adviser promised to communicate exactly what was agreed upon. They promised to advise the government to respect the role of the GIA. OG Platform shall Monitor and report the development progress to determine the outcome of settling the conflict.
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