Sulaynman Sawaneh, Chairman of Janjanbureh Area Council 

By Buba Gagigo

Sulayman Sawaneh, Chairman of the Janjanbureh Area Council, has explained that the council’s inability to hold a General Council meeting for over three months was due to delays in receiving reports from key committees tasked with evaluating staff roles and revenue streams.

Last week, a source close to the council told Kerr Fatou that the last General Council meeting was held on August 22, 2024. During that meeting, Chairman Sawaneh reportedly proposed the purchase of a vehicle worth millions. “Since that meeting on 22nd, August 2024, we did not have another meeting till now. We don’t know what happened because we are not communicated to.” said a source close to the council.

Responding to the allegations in an interview with Kerr Fatou, Chairman Sawaneh explained: “We don’t have an HR unit in Janjanbureh. The Establishment Committee is supposed to do the job of the HR. I feel the council was overstaffed when I came newly, because the salary alone was D650,000. On that note, I tasked the Establishment Committee to do a head counting to know exactly the number of staff we have. Maimuna Jallow was the head of that committee but from 2023 up to her removal in August 2024, she could not submit a report”. 

Sawaneh said Jallow’s removal was based on her inability to fulfill her duties and her contentious relationship with council staff and development partners.

“She literally has a problem with all the staff here. In fact, our development partners (TOSTAN and Action Aid) have asked us never to send her to their workshops again because she always creates problems. So based on all these is the reason why we decided to remove her as chair of that committee. After her removal, we gave the task to the committee who had already submitted their report three days ago to the vice chairman,” he said.

The chairman cited additional reasons for the delay, including the Finance Committee’s work to identify revenue sources.

“So the last two weeks the committees (Entertainment and Finance) were working together. So I was waiting for the two committees to finish their job before calling for a meeting because going for a meeting just for the sake of a meeting has no use. We have to establish a good record of our revenue and also staff,” Chairman Sulayman Sawaneh said.

Sawaneh also revealed that the council has been without a Chief Executive Officer (CEO), further complicating operations.

“The third reason has to do with our current CEO. He should have gone for retirement in June. I inquired but they said it’s only the Service Commission who can provide his replacement and also to endorse it. He was later retained after informing the president and he was to be replaced by Jaja Cham. He (Jaja) came and did the handing over. He told us to give him a few days because he was supposed to report to the commission, that was the time he was taken to mile 2. So we are without a CEO as I am talking to you and the CEO is the most important as far as the revenue of the council is concerned. We cannot do a General Council meeting without a CEO. But now the committees are done, we have our council meeting next week,” he said.

When asked if the delay was connected to his alleged proposal to purchase a vehicle worth millions, Sawaneh clarified:

“The vehicle issue was a proposal. We found the agreement here (With Reliance Financial Services). My Director of Finance told me about the agreement. We followed up and we had a meeting with them. They told us their terms and conditions. They told us they needed council approval and approval from the ministry before they could go ahead. But in fact that has been put aside now because a lot of issues came up when we took it to the ministry. These were issues that didn’t favor us. It was supposed to be a D11 million project to buy the vehicle and establish a new revenue-generating facility that would help pay the loan. We never bought the vehicle after the experts said it was not favorable.”