Modou Jonga, former CEO of Brikama Area Council
By Buba Gagigo
Modou Jonga, former Chief Executive Officer of the Brikama Area Council (BAC), has confirmed that in 2020, the council single-sourced 120 out of 173 procurement transactions.
Jonga made these disclosures on Wednesday during the ongoing Local Government Commission hearings.
When questioned about the fairness of single-sourcing such a high number of transactions, Jonga responded, “All the single-sourced transactions were approved.”He also admitted that in 2020, the Brikama Area Council did not conduct market surveys and lacked a procurement plan. “It is an important part of the procurement process (Market Survey) and again I admit that we have not been conducting market surveys, but there have been improvements in other aspects of the procurement transaction,” Jonga said.
The former CEO acknowledged the central role procurement plays in operations and admitted that BAC had no procurement plan that year. When asked how the council received a score of 86 in 2020 without a procurement plan, he stated, “We have been reviewed by an authority, we have not reviewed ourselves.”
When pressed further on how he would score an organization that lacked a procurement plan and market survey, Jonga responded, “You can be a CEO of a local government council, you can have expertise in administration management, that would not necessarily mean that you can be an expert in accounting.”
When asked about the role of the contracts committee, he explained that it is responsible for overseeing procurement matters within the organization.
In response to whether someone without procurement knowledge should be in charge of such tasks, he stated, “Of course you need to have some degree of procurement and this is what I am trying to tell you here, being a CEO doesn’t mean that you have to be an expert in admin, audit or procurement”
When asked if his understanding of procurement included knowledge about the necessity of a procurement plan and market survey, he confirmed that he was aware of these requirements. The former Brikama Area Council Chief Executive Officer later acknowledged that understanding the procurement plan and the importance of a market survey are fundamental aspects of procurement, and one does not need to be an expert to grasp this.
When questioned whether, as CEO, he understood that a procurement plan and market survey should not be compromised, he affirmed that he did.
In response to why his organization compromised these aspects, he stated that it was not intentional.