By Lamin Njie
Around 150 staff at the Gambia Ferries Service risk losing their jobs if the government proceeds with a plan to hand control of the Senegambia Bridge to the National Roads Authority, sources have told The Fatu Network.
The Gambia Ferries Service and the National Roads Authority are fighting over who should manage revenue at the newly inaugurated Senegambia Bridge.
The Ministry of Works has fashioned out an ‘interim’ arrangement between the two agencies, a senior official at the ministry told The Fatu Network on Tuesday.
“We set up a committee that came up with that interim arrangement and officials of both the ferries and NRA were part of that committee. As far as we are concerned, the operation is going smoothly,” Essa Drammeh, the director of Planning at the Ministry of Works, said.
Meanwhile, the deputy managing director at Gambia Ferries Haly Gai downplaying the row told The Fatu Network on Tuesday “it just an interim arrangement, if you go to the site you have NRA staff, you have ferries staff working in an environment that is very friendly.”
Gai, however, added: “If that [retrenchment] is a concern, is that not a concern to you as a Gambian. Do you know the social ramification of retrenchment? Do you one person, how many families are behind him? If you can avoid it, why not avoid it? 150 staff, if their lives are on the line every Gambian should be concerned but that’s not the point. The point is the government is already aware…
“It’s the country. This is about The Gambia. The government of The Gambia. You have all the relevant ministers [Ministers of Works and Finance] involved in this decision. So, what is important is not an institution, what is important is The Gambia.”
