Gamtel officials at National Assembly
By Ramatoulie Jawo
The Public Enterprise Committee (PEC) of the National Assembly sanctioned the 2021 reports of the Gambia Telecommunications Company (GAMTEL) on Wednesday, accompanied by a series of recommendations.
After a meticulous examination and deliberation on the GAMTEL reports, followed by a question and answer session between committee members and institution officials, the adoption took place.
Throughout the scrutiny process, committee members expressed concerns regarding several audit findings outlined in the reports.
Auditors disclosed to the committee an identified fraud case implicating staff from the customer care department, leading to a loss of D9 million for the company.
“Upon further inquiries, we understand that the fraud centered around the corporate customers. These customers do not pay in cash, they only pay by cheque or direct transfers. The way the fraud happened was that when corporate customers pay for the services provided by Gamtel, the staff involved in the fraud would arrange for these corporate customers to be credited with an amount less than what they have paid, and the difference would then be credited to other alleged customers accounts,” it revealed.
Furthermore, the audit report noted a lack of disclosure regarding the identities of these alleged customers involved in the fraudulent scheme.
In response, management disclosed further investigations conducted by the Disciplinary Committee, exposing misappropriation involving additional corporate accounts from various entities such as Mega Bank, BSIC (Sahel) Bank Gambia Arm Forces, Bayba Financial Service, Internal Audit Directorate, MRC, and Standard Chartered Bank.
“During the Disciplinary procedure, the committee has established a task force which comprises key stakeholders to closely scrutinize and reconcile all payment transactions with Credit advice relevant to these accounts and to report to the Committee for further deliberations,” the management reported
Committee members also brought attention to the delayed completion of the Tawa project, originally slated for a two-year duration but stretched to seven years.
“It is noted that a cumulative amount of GMD 60,104,382.47 has been spent and total revenue of GMD 25,187,603.45 realized from the tawa. Based on cost-benefit analysis, we observed that the cost incurred on the tawa has been far more than the revenue by GMD34,916,779.
The Committee requested a detailed report from the Disciplinary Committee regarding the D9 million fraud case.
Chairman Lamin J Sanneh emphasized the importance of transparency and accountability, urging Gamtel management to furnish the Committee with necessary documents for further review.
“We have consulted within ourselves as members of this committee and decided to adopt this report with conditions that are related to the request we have made in our previous engagement
1. A report from the disciplinary committee with regard to the hearing of the nine million Dalasi fraud Issue,
2. The remuneration of the GAMTEL staff, And the Towa project in which we are requesting a contract document, a visibility study report, and the investments document,” he requested.
Sanneh underscored the significance of constructive engagement to address the issues outlined in the report, emphasizing Gamtel’s role as a national asset.
“Your institution is a national asset for that matter, it has been a major contributor to our GDP previously but the trend in which it is going we are worried as citizens of this country and what is incumbent upon us is for us to have a frank discussion around issues that are contained in our report,” he said. Gamtel management assured the Committee of full cooperation, pledging to provide all requisite support documents, particularly concerning the Tawa project and the discussed fraud case, for thorough review.