The Gambia Public Procurement Authority's head of Procurement Policy and Operations has told the Local Government Commission of Inquiry that the Mansakonko Area Council "did not have an evaluation committee".

Ebrima Sanyang, who made this statement yesterday at the sittings of the Commission, has more than a decade and a half of public procurement experience.

As director of Procurement Policy and Operations, he manages the policy unit at the GPPA and supports the implementation of public procurement laws and guidelines.

Mr Sanyang exhausted last week entirely testifying before the Commission, which is currently examining the procurement practices of councils across the regions in The Gambia to evaluate their levels of compliance.

In his testimony yesterday, Mr Sayang confirmed that, as contained in the 2022 compliance report, Mansakonko flouted procurement laws in 2022.

Among issues he raised before the Commission was that the Mansakonko Area Council did not have an evaluation committee to review what were being sent by suppliers, which should ensure that the awarding of contracts was based on merit.

He stated that without an evaluation committee, it was difficult to ascertain how the evaluation was done to award contracts to bidders, saying there were chances that contracts might be awarded to the wrong bidders.

"In fact, the wrong bidder is always selected," deputy Lead Counsel Patrick Gomez put it to the witness, saying: "You cannot convince me in law where the wrong bidder is not selected."

The witness concurred with the counsel that "an award decision has to be based on merit".