Dear Pa,
It has occurred to me as a duty to draw your attention to another shady deal at The ministry of health which will cost the Gambian taxpayer more than D11 Million that is going to the pockets of the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Health, Procurement Officers and the GPPA. In this episode of the vicious cycle of corruption at the Ministry, a single source transaction of a contract worth D23,000,000 has been awarded to one supplier called Atlas Trading (not to be confused with Atlas petrol company) own by one Mbaye Bohoum. He is to supply Dialysis Consumables. This amount, D23,000,000 is far more than the threshold in the GPPA Act for single sourcing.
The Act provides that any single source more than D10,000 should take quotation at least 3 suppliers. In this case the Ministry should have at least requested for quotations (RFQ) from a minimum of 3 suppliers.
As an insider and of the people who are privy to this process, I can tell you that the Permanent Secretary Momodou Lamin Jaiteh initially asked for a list of one months supply of these items but later we realized that this was increased to six months supply, a decision taken without the consent of The Hospital technicians who accordingly and promptly informed the GPPA not to approve the fraudulently inflated volume of supplies because TENDER was approved in July to supply the same items but the DG of GPPA told us that it is PS Jaiteh of the ministry of health who called him and appealed to him to approve it because patients are dying at the hospital. This is often the flimsy excuse they use to circumvent laid down procedures and fast-tracked contracts without due process just to receive millions of dalasis as kickbacks from the dubious contractors. The whole idea of this single sourcing is to allow them to fraudulently increase the actual need of the country from 1 months’ supply to 6 months which means much more money is involved to cater for the financial benefit of the supplier and PS Jaiteh. I guess Dr Samateh cannot say he is not aware of this and if he is not, I advise him to call his PS to find out.
Pa , this matter is of utmost importance which must be exposed and investigated because by our calculation this fraudulent activity if stopped can save the Gambia up to D11million ) which would otherwise go to PS Jaiteh and his personal friend Mbaye Bohoum and other corrupt officials at the GPPA. It would also break your heart to know that this is common particle at the Health ministry which today is the most corrupt ministry in the country where official’s in position of determining contracts conspire to award contracts to favored suppliers who will inflate invoices to cater for their profit as well as the millions that will go for kickbacks to corrupt officials at the ministry and GPPA.
As recent as 3 months ago, a similar deal was contracted, and nothing came out of it. Even worst this supplier always claim that he has ready stock and can deliver within days when in actual fact he does not have any stock in the country and always struggle to import medicine into the Gambia and in bits instead of whole stock. The supplier and PS Jaiteh always tinker with the list so that certain drugs would come in short supply even though they cost more so that they can always find way to renew supplies. Even this current has consignment of matching drugs that are not equal in quantity meaning they there is always a shortage and need for more, a hidden strategy to milk the taxpayers hard earned money.
It is also important to note that Mr Bohoum had participated and lost in a previous tender to supply these same items. But these same officials wanted to favor him by single sourcing the supply of the same items to him to satisfy their corrupt appetite. To add salt to injury the quotations he submitted for the same items in the previous tender, for example D3,000, per item has now been inflated to D10,000 per item in this single sourcing contract. This is an undeniable fact known to all who care for the truth at the Ministry.
The sad thing is that with all these exposures about corruption, the government never investigate anything encouraging all other government bodies to engage in deep corruption.
This is the sad Story in The Gambia today.
Pa, please look into this matter because most of the journalists in the Gambia are politicians. So, you don’t know who to trust.
Written by a Concerned citizen.
Editors note: The author’s views do not represent the position of the Freedom Newspaper. His claims would be treated as mere allegations, until proven otherwise. Thanks for your kind attention.
The post GAMBIA: LETTER TO THE EDITOR: REVEALED: Multi-million dalasi fraudulent contract at Ministry of Health appeared first on Freedom Newspaper.