Issue No. 9/ 2004, 29 Jan-1 Feb, 2004 Editorial Commission of Enquiry From 1994 to Date Promised President Jammeh has told the Nation that he would set up a Commission of Enquiry to investigate how people occupying office of public trust had acquired their resources. He said the enquiry would start with himself. It is a Constitutional provision under Section 200 that "The President may, whenever he/she deems it advisable, issue a Commission appointing one of more Commissioners and authorizing such Commissioners to inquire into the conduct and management of any department or authority of the public service or any local government authority or public service." "Any matter whatever arising in the Gambia in which an enquiry would in the opinion of the President be for the public good." In short, when a Commission of Enquiry finishes its work it makes a report to the President who must take action. One may now ask: How would the President react when adverse findings against him is reported to him for action? Some people argue that even though they do not expect President Jammeh to be subjected to enquiry by a Commission the statements he is making is making people close to him to be restrained. In our view, if the President was really serious about accountability, he would have found out what is holding the Auditor General’s Report to the National Assembly for the past years and then raise the necessary fund or provide the necessary facilities to make them perform their task with speed. Notwithstanding, the whole nation is waiting for the President to subject himself to asset evaluation. This would indeed be a history in the making. As the old saying goes, ‘the proof of the pudding is in the eating’. The future will tell. BABA JOBE’S TRIAL PART 10 No Case To Answer - Defence The trial of Majority Leader, Baba Jobe, the Managing Director of YDE, Baba Kanteh and the YDE itself has reached a new stage. The prosecution has closed its case and the defence says the accused have no case to answer. On Tuesday, January 27, 2004 two defence lawyers namely Mr. Edward Gomez and Mr. Lamin Jobarteh addressed the court. The leading lawyer in the defence team in addressing the court informed the court that the three accused persons have been charged with six counts of economic crimes and related offences. Mr. Gomez submitted that the onus of proof of guilt in a criminal trial of this nature rests with the prosecution. He then asserted that the prosecution had done nothing that would warrant the defence to enter their case. He noted that Count One alleges that the accused failed to pay port duties to the tune of D27million (twenty seven million dalasis) contrary to section 5 (b) of the Economic Crimes Decree . Mr. Gomez submitted that none of the seven prosecution witnesses had shown proof of intention to defraud the state of revenue by the accused persons. He cited the evidence of Mr. Deen of GPA whom he said told the court that he wrote a letter to YDE asking them to settle their debt on port duties and handling charges. He argued that the letter clearly made reference to a debt and not losses. He also made reference to the letter to the Secretary General Office of the President, noting that the emphasis was on outstanding loans and not losses. He further submitted that Mr. Deen’s admission of a payment of D299,000 (Two hundred and ninety thousand dalasis) by YDE to GPA showed the gesture and will of the YDE to pay and not to defraud as alleged. He asserted that the letter of YDE dated 1st October 2003 shows compromise and the will to pay. He further pointed out that after the letter of Lawyer Drammeh, GPA and YDE were negotiating. He noted that Mr. Deen informed the court that YDE not Baba Jobe or Baba Kanteh have been the credit customer of GPA. He also pointed out that Mr. Deen acknowledged that the YDE had 822,000 (eight hundred and twenty two thousand) metric tonnes of rice in GPA stores. He argued that the value of this rice far exceeds the amount owed by YDE to GPA. He submitted that the law gives power to the GPA in cases of this nature to impound and sell such goods of the importer to recover such loans. On the cheques, Mr. Gomez submitted that Mr. Deen, under cross examination, denied that Baba Jobe issued him with over thirty cheques. He then submitted that there was no proof of intention to defraud the state of revenue amounting to D27 million in the evidence of Mr. Deen that would constitute economic crime. Regarding the evidence of Mr. Aziz Samba, Financial Director, GPA Mr. Gomez submitted that it shows no proof of counts one and two. He then submitted that the testimony of Kaba Tambajang revealed that by October 2003 YDE had paid up to D1.6 million which shows their intention of not evading customs duties. He emphasized that Mr. Tambajang acknowledged that the Customs dealt with YDE and not the two accused. On the issue of duty waivers Mr. Gomez submitted that the evidence adduced before the Court clearly shows that duty waivers were issued by the Department of State for Finance and Economic Affairs in favour of YDE. He cited Exhibits O, P and AA8 to back his assertion. He also cited Exhibits Y1, Y2 and Y3 as examples of applications of direct delivery that have taken notice of all the required customs procedure for direct delivery. He concluded that all these are proof that there was no intention of defrauding or causing losses to the state as alleged in the charges. Mr. Gomez submitted that the evidence of Buba Baldeh was very helpful to the court in that he had said that he himself and Buba Senghore had gone to the GPA and Customs on several occasions to find out, assess, reconcile and so on, so as to come up with a payment plan to the GPA and Customs. On Mr. Ousman Mboge’s evidence Mr. Gomez submitted that this witness eloquently replied to a question from the DPP: Q: How do you categorize the remaining D73,933,000? A: As outstanding duties to be collected by Customs. In conclusion, Mr. Gomez called on the court to acquit and discharge the accused persons since the prosecution has not laid any evidence that has shown proof that the accused were at any time involved in anything aimed at committing economic crimes and any of the related charges as alleged. See the next issue for the addresses of Mr. Jobarteh and the Prosecutor. Trial of Modou Soma Jobe The trial of Modou Soma Jobe resumed on Thursday the 22nd January 2004 in Farafenni. When the case was mentioned, Lawyers Jobarteh and Borry Touray stood to announce their presence for the accused person. Mr. Jobarteh told the court that Mr. Edu Gomez who had earlier appeared for the accused was on a mission in Banjul, but promised to be in court by the next sitting. At this point, the Prosecutor stood up to apply for an adjournment on the grounds that the senior prosecutor, Sgt. Jahateh, who is responsible for this case was on an official mission to Banjul. Lawyer Jobarteh objected to the application filed by the prosecution and asked the case to proceed. Magistrate Mbye overruled out the objection and adjourned the case till 25th February 2004. Murmuring could be heard amongst curious court attendants who were eager for the case to proceed. Many felt disappointed that Sgt. Jahateh was not in court. Sectorial Review of President Jammeh’s Interview THEY ARE ENEMIES AND NOT OPPOSITION The first analysis dealt with a comprehensive analysis of the future of government policy in agriculture. Let us now take the issue of road construction. According to the president his critics never express appreciation for the good things he is doing. They often say that building roads and schools are a waste of money. Let us now examine some of the views from political figures who see themselves as an alternative. When the president was asked to state his vision for road construction he did not indicate what it was. There is no doubt that PDOIS national assembly members were the first to indicate that there should be integrated planning in building roads; that it was destructive to build roads without considering drainage; that it was more destructive to build roads and start to dig it to give room for installation of pipes and other gadgets. It has been argued that only about 20% of roads in The Gambia are surfaced; that due to such limitations government should have the foresight to work out a strategic plan for an integrated road network scheme. The emphasis has been strategic intervention. What does this mean? It means that government must identify the areas that can open up the country internally and externally to maximum communication for social interaction and economic activity. It has been pointed out that building a part of the South or North bank roads while the other parts remain disregarded is counter-productive. It does not save time and reduce cost. On the contrary, it increases the cost of maintenance of vehicles and fares. The government should therefore approach different donors in an integrated fashion after testing the plan to provide one good North Bank road from Barra to the upper river and a south bank stretch from Banjul to the upper river. Secondary roads can be built by the councils to feed the main roads. Furthermore, the roads that would open up the external links of the country should be focused on and integrated to the main internal road building plan. The Basse-Wellingara, Hamdalai-Barra, Mandinaba-Siliti, etc roads can be built with the cooperation of Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Conakry and so on, that ultimately there will be a road stretching to several countries in the sub-region. European tourists are travelling from Europe to The Gambia by road. Through integrated road planning we can open our country internally and externally to the free movement of people, goods and services. What better plan can APRC give? Can another government not get loans to build roads? What then is the APRC doing on road construction that an alternative government cannot do? Why should people criticize destructively and say that roads and hospitals are wastage of resources. People who see themselves as better alternatives can never utter such remarks. The president should state who he is directing his statements to for people to determine whether he is correct or not. He may see opposition as enemies. The people however see a genuine alternative government emerging to address the current crisis of ignorance and underdevelopment. An alternative government always wishes the existing government to do its best and prove that its best is not good enough for The Gambia. Such people have no time to have personal enemies. _________________________________________________________________ Check out the great features of the new MSN 9 Dial-up, with the MSN Dial-up Accelerator. http://click.atdmt.com/AVE/go/onm00200361ave/direct/01/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~