FactCheck: How Many Vehicles Were Purchased for the OIC Summit in Banjul?

By Fatoumata Jaiteh

During the recently concluded 15th Summit for the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) held in The Gambia from 4th to 5th of May 2024, there were mixed messages published locally and internationally about the number of Luxury Vehicles purchased for the Summit.

Claim: Speaking to the media on 30th April 2024, just days before the Summit, the CEO of The Gambia’s OIC Secretariat, Yankuba Dibba, noted that “The Gambia Government has bought 100 brand new SUVs and Mercedes Benz. That’s enough to cater for all our Heads of States.”

In addition, several media houses carried different headlines over the number of vehicles purchased for the Summit. Gambian Talents Promotion published a video report highlighting that “Barrow Receives 89 VVIP & Delegates Vehicles for the OIC Summit”. Freedom Newspaper reported an article written by Open Gambia with the headline “Gambia: How was the Contract for the 87 New Vehicles for use During the one Week Long OIC Conference”.

The news was also reported in series of opinion articles and at least one international media named Union of OIC News Agencies who reported that “The Gambian President inspects about 100 Vehicles Designated for the Islamic Summit in Banjul”.

FactCheck:

Number of Vehicles Purchased

During a Parliamentary Question and Answer Session [watch from 1hr 34mins] held on 18th September 2024, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Hon Seedy S. Keita was asked by the Hon Member for Niamina Dankunku to provide details on the “procurement process for the purchase of the 100 vehicles for the OIC summit in 2024, the criteria used for selecting the vehicles, the total expenditure and how these vehicles will be utilized in the post-OIC summit?”

In response, the Finance Minister revealed that “I will like to make certain clarifications. The actual number of vehicles purchased were 89 not 100, so that’s a point of correction”.

Procurement Process

Speaking on the procurement process Finance Minister Keita noted that “instead of an open tender, because of time pressure, we decided to enter into a restricted tender which was approved by GPPA. Bids were received from Shyben A Madi, TK Motors, Espace Motors [Quantumnet], Asata Motors, Lanza Motors and Cornerstones Motors”.

At the end of the first assessment Minister Keita noted that “Espace Motors [thats Quantumnet] won the First Lot, while TK Motors won the Second Lot”.

However, there was a “reassessment of the VIP needs, and consideration for cost. The OIC Board advised for a change of specifications as follows; Lot 1, Sixty [60] Toyota Land Cruiser VXR total cost €7.4 million Euros” and “Lot 2, Twenty One [21] Toyota Prado VX, total cost €1.349 million, Six [6] Mercedes Benz S Class, €1.044 and Two [2] Mercedes Benz Vans at €170K”.

According to Minister Keita’s submission, the award was reassessed and both lots were awarded to Espace Motors.

“Lot 1 was negotiated and awarded to Espace motors while Lot 2 went under protracted negotiation with TK Motors, at the end we could not agree on terms. That is the concession sought by TK Motors could not be agreed on and as a result Lot 2 was awarded to Espace Motors. The total value of the contract for the 89 vehicles was €9.996 million,” said Keita.

The above conversions are done at a rate of €1 Euro costing D70 GMD which is conservative considering that the Euro fluctuated between D72 and D73 GMD during this period.

Looking at the table above, it can be seen that the cost of the vehicles when tabulated comes to €9.963 Million which is €33,000 less than the total value of the contract for the 89 vehicles stated by Minister Keita [€9.996 Million].

Looking at the overall cost in Gambian Dalasi, shows that almost D700 Million has been spent on the 89 vehicles, with the most expensive vehicle being the Mercedes Benz S Class at a cost of over D12.1 million each.

Payment for the Vehicles

Responding to Supplementary Questions from Parliamentarians, Hon Seedy Keita revealed that the vehicles were not included in the 2024 Budget, instead the Supplier prefinanced the vehicles and at the time of his response only 20% of the balance was paid by the government.

In the same response, the Finance Minister noted that “at the time of the Summit, Zero Dalasi or Dollars was paid to the Supplier, the Supplier 100% financed the vehicles”. In fact, “post payment only came in about two months ago, which was D120 million, so we owe the supplier balances on these supplies”.

This response sparked additional questions from Parliamentarians who wanted to know how the first installment was paid given that the 2024 Budget did not make allocation for this. In response Minister Keita explained that the Ministry collapsed the vehicle budget of all Ministries, Departments and Agencies [MDAs] into one and used the proceeds to pay the 20%. In doing this, he added that “all the MDAs were consulted and what happened is, post the summit, some MDAs were allocated – vehicles from the OIC”.

Verdict:

The statement issued by the CEO of the Gambia’s OIC Secretariat and the headlines indicating that 100 Vehicles were purchased on behalf of The Gambia Government is MISLEADING according to the Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs, Seedy S. Keita.

In his submission to Parliament, Finance Minister Keita clarified that 89 Vehicles were purchased for the OIC Summit and not 100 Vehicles or 87 Vehicles as reported by numerous sources.

Due to this, the claims that 100 Vehicles or 87 Vehicles were purchased for the OIC Summit is deemed MISLEADING.

This FactCheck was first published on the FactCheckGambia.org Website in the link: https://factcheckgambia.org/factcheck-how-many-vehicles-were-purchased-for-the-oic-summit-in-banjul/