Mrs Ada Gaye, former Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture said she was scared to ask Kanilai Group International KGI to repay millions of dalasi taken from the Japanese grant. She made the disclosure at the commission of inquiry probing into the financial dealings of the former president and his close associates.
Mrs Gaye revealed that the Japanese government was providing food grant such as rice, flour and fertilizer to The Gambia Government for the needy farmers at affordable prices, saying the former president was the Agriculture Minister while his own business group, KGI was assigned to sell the consignment.
The former Agriculture PS said KGI was the sole contractor but could not tell how the contract was awarded to them. She mentioned 4 agreements made by the former president’s business group in respect to the sale of rice, flour and fertilizer consignments amounting to millions of dalasi.
She made mention of a D30 Million Dalasi default with a shortfall of D17 Million Dalasi plus an unauthorized expenditure of D92 Million for fertilizers.
“I was scared to ask KGI to further pay the millions taken from the Grant,” Mrs Ada Gaye said.
She was asked what scare her from requesting for the payment?
“I was told the former president was not happy when I asked for the payments,” she replied.
She added that the Japanese officials were not happy with the way the funds were managed but continued releasing grants.
Several correspondence from her office in respect to the Japanese grant were submitted and marked as exhibits.
Next to appear before the commission was Cherno Abdoulie Mballow, former head of Agriculture Business at the Department of Agriculture.
He was summoned in respect to the Japanese rice grant to the government of The Gambia. Mballow explained that his role was to coordinate all business activities of the Agriculture department which includes training of farmers and registration of cooperatives among others.
Mballow said the ministry was responsible for the Grant which was mainly in cash and there was an agreement that one of the Japanese agencies would handle the project, noting that they would do the clearance of the rice consignment at the ports while proceeds from the sale should be deposited at the Central Bank where monies were deposited by Kanilai Group International.
He confirmed that he was the focal person between the Ministry and Japan at the time, saying he witnessed only four consignments.
However, he said the terms and conditions on offers made to KGI was not cleared at the meeting, noting that any price proposals by the ministry at the time was forwarded to the Office of the President for approval.
Mr Mballow however disclosed that they did not make any follow up on KGI for the deposit of the proceeds but confirmed that KGI did not deposit all the proceeds at the Central Bank.
He added that whatever price was determined, there was always an approval by the former president as the Japanese government gave a time limit to every project but there was no audit report.
Meanwhile, the former focal person said the Japanese government claimed that KGI did not deposit all the monies from the consignments of the commodities.
