A former Kanifing Municipal Council procurement manager is to face disciplinary proceedings over gaps in procurement records, while the Government has cleared a former colleague who said she resisted improper instructions.
A third officer, Yankuba Njie, also faces disciplinary action and an audit. The Commission's concerns about him focused mainly on his earlier work collecting council revenue, before he became a procurement officer.
The Local Government Commission of Inquiry examined councils' financial and administrative activities from May 2018 to January 2023. Its findings show problems with price checks, competition and record keeping at KMC, but also describe different levels of responsibility among the staff involved.
Abdoulie Janneh
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Abdoulie Janneh joined KMC as a storekeeper in 1999 and became Procurement Manager in 2009. After a period in the Stores Unit, he returned to the procurement department in November 2020, leading a team of two procurement officers and two assistants.
His unit advised the chief executive and the Contracts Committee on how to buy goods and services or award works contracts. Mr Janneh told the Commission that staff checked prices by contacting suppliers and using their experience.
The Commission found that written market surveys were not kept between 2021 and 2023. Without them, it said, the council could not clearly show that contract prices were reasonable or represented value for money. It also found that the procurement unit only began keeping a suppliers' list in January 2021.
Mr Janneh said he did not know whether every council purchase passed through his unit; he knew only about requests formally sent to him. The Commission said this raised concern that some transactions may have bypassed procurement controls. It also found that advice was sometimes given verbally rather than recorded.
The Commission recommended an administrative sanction against Mr Janneh. The Government accepted and referred him to the Local Government Service Commission for disciplinary proceedings.
Fatoumata Saho-Cham
Fatoumata Saho Cham, also a former procurement manager, gave evidence about the purchase of 19 waste trucks for the Mbalit Project. She said Espace Motors had been involved in discussions about the trucks and financing before the formal tender began.
Ms Cham told the inquiry that the Contracts Committee later met to regularise the process. She said this gave Espace Motors an advantage over other bidders, including TK Motors, which submitted a lower price per truck. Espace was chosen because it offered pre-financing, although the Commission heard that there was no feasibility study showing the project could repay its loan from its own income.
Ms Cham also described the purchase of eight additional skip bins for D3.6m without a competitive tender or request for quotations. She said she refused to endorse other procurement processes she considered improper, including purchases of bulldozer parts and repeat contracts for clearing illegal dumpsites. She told the Commission that she faced pressure from senior officials and was moved to the Finance Department in September 2020.
The Commission found widespread breaches of procurement rules across KMC and recommended an administrative sanction against Ms Cham. The Government rejected that recommendation, saying her evidence showed she had resisted irregular instructions and tried to follow the law. It found no personal misconduct by her.
Yankuba Njie
Yankuba Njie became a procurement officer in May 2022, after working as a market collector and market master. The inquiry's main concerns about him related to his earlier revenue work.
Mr Njie admitted that he had sometimes failed to deposit all the money he collected on time. He said he kept some funds for extended periods and had temporarily used collected revenue for personal purposes, which he acknowledged was improper. He said outstanding amounts were later repaid, but had not provided documents to prove this to the Commission.
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An unused General Treasury Receipt booklet also went missing while in his custody. Mr Njie said he reported the loss, but could not produce a copy of his written report.
The Commission recommended an administrative sanction. The Government accepted and referred him for disciplinary proceedings, saying his earlier conduct raised concerns about his handling of public funds and suitability for later procurement duties. It also directed the Auditor General to audit the under-deposited revenue and seek recovery if the records establish a loss.
The Government's decisions were therefore different: it accepted disciplinary action against Mr Janneh, rejected a sanction against Ms Cham, and accepted action against Mr Njie based on concerns about his revenue-collection work.
