Fatou Saho Cham, Former KMC Procurement Manager says
By Fatou Sillah
Fatou Saho Cham, former Procurement Manager for the Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC), testified before the Local Government Commission of Inquiry, asserting she did not participate in the procurement process for repairing the council’s D8 and D9 bulldozers, a project totalling over one million Dalasis.
Lead Counsel Patrick Gomez questioned Saho Cham on her knowledge of the procurement activities. He referenced a 2019 instance where Mr. Kan Mustapha Kanyi allegedly purchased spare parts from Senegal for the repairs and inquired about her role as procurement manager at the time.
“You recall some time in 2019, Mr Kan Mustapha Kanyi, purchased spare parts or allegedly from Senegal for the repair of bulldozers D8, D9. You would have been there, the procurement manager at the time. What do you know about that particular procurement or process,”
The witness explained that her assistant brought in a document, which she didn’t interpret as a request, but rather as information that the D8 and D9 machines were not operational and needed management’s consideration for repairs or major maintenance.
The witness further testified that her assistant provided the document with invoices attached. She questioned her assistant, asking why a request was accompanied by invoices, and her assistant replied, “This is how it was given to me.” The witness then took the invoice and approached the Finance Director, Sheriff Njie, since the CEO was busy and the Finance Director was the only senior official available at the time.
“So I went straight to him to clarify how such a request is being endorsed by him. That we should go ahead and do the procurement, and in this case is not the procurement process. It is already being completed; now is for us to do the paperwork. He said this is how it came to us, and go ahead and do the paperwork. I told him no, I cannot participate in such a procurement. That very day, we had a bitter argument over the issue.
She explained that she discovered her assistant, Sarata Jaiteh, had already completed the procurement paperwork.
“I came to realize that my assistant went ahead and did the paperwork. I asked her why she did it. She said Sheriff Njie and Jaja Cham asked her to do it, and they were insisting. I told her no. As the head of procurement, I am not participating in this procurement and I don’t expect you to do so as well. But unfortunately, she went ahead to do the paperwork,” she said.
The Lead Counsel asked the witness whether she had handed the request to Sarata, saying, “You hand over the request to Sarata or you were asked to hand it over to her.”
The witness responded, “Sarata brought it. That we are asked to process. Because most of the time all the requests come through her and I will pick it from her and go through them and do the necessary verification” she said.
Lead Counsel Patrick then questioned the witness, saying, “your evidence is that, when she brought it, you refused because it is as if you were rectifying the procurement that they already did. As far as you are concerned, you feel only there to do the paperwork, but they already did,” He put it to the witness.
The witness testified that upon reviewing the invoices, she discovered several significant loopholes.
“When I went through the invoices I realized that mainly the procurement process there are a lot of loopholes in it. One is, the amount added together should have been over 1 million. So the procurement method there is splitting in it which I was concerned about because to me, they were avoiding the tender part of it. In considering all those loopholes in the procurement, I decided to distance myself. I came outright and told them that I’m not going to be part of this procurement, which stood until the end of the process,” she said.
Lead counsel Patrick then asked, “Now they went ahead and did this procurement. Was it a usual thing at KMC regarding procurement when you serve as procurement manager?” He asked.
“Not to my knowledge,” the witness replied.