Dr. Adama Sallah, Former Board Chairman at EFSTH
By Buba Gagigo
Dr. Adama Sallah, the former board chairman of the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital (EFSTH), has disclosed that approximately D27 million allocated for medical equipment disappeared shortly before his departure.
He alleges that the funds were withdrawn from the hospital’s accounts by the Deputy Medical Director, Dr. Abubacarr Jagne.
Dr. Sallah explained that the hospital was in the process of modernizing its laboratory facilities, with plans to purchase advanced equipment through World Bank funding.
“The (Deputy) CMD for some reason was selected to go and negotiate with the suppliers in Senegal. He’s not a lab guy, he only does basic training in the lab. There were people in the lab that were experts in laboratory science, including the head of the lab. But you are not directly involved. He went and did many trips to Senegal. The amount involved was extremely high, it was like over three million dollars. Dr. Jagne was gallivanting from here and Dakar, why him alone? And why single sourcing? He questioned.
Dr. Sallah revealed that the equipment procured was not up to standard. He also noted that prior to the procurement, former CMD Dr. Nyang had negotiated with a well-known lab equipment supplier, EBOT, who directed him to their Senegalese representative. After negotiations, EBOT agreed to sell directly to EFSTH, and D27 million was allocated for the purchase. All that remained was clearance from the Gambia Public Procurement Authority (GPPA) for single sourcing.
“EBOT directed him to their representative in Senegal. He (Dr. Nyang) negotiated and EBOT later accepted to sell directly to EFSTH. The whole thing was processed and the money was available. About D27 million dalasis was allocated for that. All they needed was clearance from GPPA for single sourcing. They contacted the GPPA and GPPA thought the need was genuine, and they were ready to give clearance for single sourcing. But unfortunately, at the material time, Dr. Nyang was removed quickly and ceremoniously from his position. And then was replaced by Aljafari,” he explained.
Dr. Sallah stated that, according to Dr. Nyang, the file was handed over to Dr. Jagne for processing.
“He went to GPPA and GPPA said no problem because the file was already being processed up to that level. They told him all that you need is approval to do the single sourcing. But for some reason, the Deputy CMD (Dr. Jagne) didn’t take action and the file was put aside, and then the World Bank I think came to finance the equipment for the lab, and he jumped over to that. So the other purchase was never made. But what happened to the D27 million? Until I left, there was no clear explanation on what they did with that money,” he explained.
In a separate corruption allegation, Dr. Sallah revealed that the Deputy CMD traveled to Ghana to purchase medical equipment. Instead of providing the supplier’s bank account for payment, he gave his own personal bank account in Ghana, leading to the discovery of this misconduct.
“They started reporting each other. In fact this revelation was made by the CMD that they were supposed to buy theatre lamps and beds in Ghana, his deputy sourced it on his own and then gave them a bank account to pay purporting it was that of the supplier when actually it was his bank account. To add salt to injuries when these suppliers come from Ghana, the lambs came according to the recipients that the store showed us but the theatre bed which was the most expensive item never came and this was worth thousands of dollars,” he said.
Dr. Sallah also accused Dr. Jagne of soliciting a $25,000 bribe from a Syrian biomedical technician in exchange for a renovation contract for the hospital’s imaging facility.
“The CMD himself informed me (Dr. Sallah) that the Syrian Biomedical Technician informed him that Dr. Jagne has requested basically a bribe of $25,000 for him to be given the renovation contract. I told him how come you never mention it, and you didn’t do anything, the guy just couldn’t just come up with anything,” he said.
He further alleged that funds intended to provide food for patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis were misappropriated.
“So through the global fund it was decided at the level of the Central Medical store that money should be allocated for the procurement of these food items for those patients. I think it was in the tune of D27,000 to D30,000. It came to the hospital Account, but then the Deputy CMD said the patients involved have died. He said the CMD had requested for the money to be taken to him. So he physically took the form with the understanding that he’s taking it to the CMD but when the CMD was confronted, he said he knew nothing about that money,” Dr. Sallah told Kerr Fatou.
Dr. Adama Sallah, former Board Chairman of the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital (EFSTH), was dismissed following his disclosure of a corruption issue involving hospital staff, which he initially revealed on Freedom Radio. After his dismissal, the government initiated an investigation into the matter, but the findings have not yet been made public.