By Fatou Sillah
The Ministry of Information, Media, and Broadcasting Services has announced the legal termination of its contract with Sparkling Multimedia, citing insufficient deliverables as the primary reason for the decision.
According to a press statement, a thorough review of Sparkling Multimedia’s contributions and those of other media contractors was conducted prior to approving the second payment request, as stipulated in the contractual agreement.
In 2024, the Government of The Gambia entered into a D40 million contract with five media houses and two content creators to support the promotion of government initiatives. The media houses involved were The Fatu Network, Star TV, QTV Gambia, Paradise TV, and Eye Africa TV, while Sparkling Multimedia and Fandema Multimedia were tasked with providing content.
“The Ministry of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services on behalf of The Gambia Government engaged content provider, Sparkling Multimedia Agency, on a one-year service contract to provide content popularizing the ongoing government development projects and initiatives,” the statement outlined.
The statement explained that Sparkling Multimedia was engaged under a one-year contract to create content highlighting ongoing government development projects and initiatives. However, during the performance review, it was determined that none of Sparkling Multimedia’s deliverables met the necessary standards for broadcast by the media houses.
“As part of the contractual agreement, the deliverables made by Sparkling Multimedia Agency and all other media contractors were reviewed before approval of the second payment request. During that performance review, it became known that none of Sparkling Multimedia Agency’s deliverables was good enough for media houses to broadcast,” the statement noted.
The Ministry’s statement indicated that, as part of the review process, it sought legal advice from the Ministry of Justice on the next steps. Based on this consultation, the recommendation was made to terminate the contract.
“Subsequently, a legal opinion was solicited from the Ministry of Justice and Attorney General Chamber on the way forward, and the advice received was to terminate the said contract.” the statement reads.
Additionally, the ministry reported that Sparkling Multimedia failed to respond to formal invitations for discussions regarding their underperformance.
“Sparkling Multimedia was formally informed about their underperformance but did not respond to our invitation. In that regard, the public is informed that the Ministry of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services legally terminated Sparkling Multimedia Agency’s contract effective the 2nd September 2024,” The statement concluded.
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