By Buba Gagigo
Hon. Ebrima Sillah, the Minister of Transport, Works, and Infrastructure, has provided explanations for the postponement of compensation payments in the Bijilo area. The delays are attributed to the demise of rightful landowners or claimants lacking proper title deeds.
“Just to tell you that in the Bijilo area alone, when we did the property valuations, one section of the road alone, I think we were to pay D34 million. And in December of last year, we provided about D17 million to the NRA, and only 2 million was paid out of this. You know why? Because the problem is that most of the compounds within the Greater Banjul Area, the actual owners have either died or the people who are actually claiming ownership of them don’t have the titles,” the Minister said.
He stressed the importance of having titles registered in claimants’ names to process compensation payments.
“For us, we cannot pay compensation to anyone whose name is not on the title, or if we had to pay you and your name is not on the title the entire family have to give you the power of attorney and is this power of attorney that will now be assessed,” he said.
Minister Sillah further noted, “Some of the people who were coming to claim ownership of these places for compensation, when we cross-check, there’s a whole section of my ministry responsible for that; It is not them whose names are on the leased documents. So you will send them to bring those necessary documents, and remember, monies are not paid to us. Payment vouchers are raised, and then they are sent to the Treasury, and the Treasury will send it to the Central Bank, so the Central Bank will pay it directly into the beneficiary’s bank account.”
These comments were made by the Minister during a press briefing held by the Ministry of Information this Monday.