GT Board Director Claims He Hasn't Received Eco-Lodges Parliamentary Resolution

By Askanwi

The Director of the Gambia Tourism Board (GT Board), Mr Abubacarr S Camara told members of the press that "as far as [he] is concerned, [his institution] has not yet received any communication about" the GT Board Petition Parliamentary Resolution during a press conference held yesterday, 9th October 2024 at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International Conference Center.

The Gambia's National Assembly issued a resolution after years of investigations after some Senior Staff of the GT Board submitted a petition into their Institution’s activities back in 2021. After the petition was lodged Senior Staff included in the petition were re-deployed and some were dismissed.

During the course of the Parliamentary inquiry, current GT Board Director General, Mr Abubacarr S Camara was summoned to a Parliamentary Committee where he denied terminating or redeploying staff for petitioning against the the GT Board.

Yesterday, a reporter questioned the GT Board Director on Parliament’s Resolution on the Petition, however, Mr Camara declined to comment when he said “the petition, yes, I've been hearing from the Grapevine that there's a petition and already there are resolutions, but as far as I'm concerned, we have not yet received any communication about that. So, I will not be able to comment on that”.

Askanwi, accessed the updated GT Board Resolution issued by Parliament since on September 24th when the resolution was issued. According to the Parliamentary resolution "all the senior staff deployed and wrongfully terminated/dismissed as a result of this petition, are recalled ... and reinstated to their former posts with immediate effect".

The petition uncovers some of the allegations of corruption in the awarding of Eco-Lodges contracts, staff employment matters, land allocation and development in the Tourism Development Area, the governance structure of the GT Board, the GT Board Head office Complex contractual agreement, the budget allocation for the Ministry of Tourism and Culture The Gambia and on conflict of interest at the GT Board.

It’s important to note that this all happened during the tenure of the current Minister of Lands, Hon Hamat N.K. Bah, then the Minister of Tourism. Askanwi will be publishing a series of articles highlighting some of the corruption uncovered in the GT Board Petition Resolution issued by Parliament.