ASSEMBLY RECOMMENDS EX-AG TAMBADOU BE CHARGED WITH ECONOMIC CRIMES
The National Assembly committee established to look into how former president Yahya Jammeh’s assets forfeited to the state were disposed of, has recommended criminal proceedings be instituted against the former attorney general and justice minister.
The report presented to the plenary of parliament yesterday and adopted by lawmakers found that Abubacarr Tambadou presided over a “systematic pattern of violations” of the Public Finance Act 2014 in the handling of assets and related financial matters and opened commercial bank accounts without authorisation and bypassing the accountant general. By this act, the committee said the former minister created parallel financial systems that operated outside constitutional and statutory frameworks provided in the Public Finance Act.
The report further stated that Tambadou threatened then Finance Minister Mambury Njie with criminal proceedings after Njie insisted he comply with the Public Finance Act. The committee described such act as “distasteful, unethical, and constitutes abuse” of the attorney general’s position and an attempt to obstruct legitimate oversight by a colleague minister.
”The committee is thus compelled to conclude that Tambadou’s conduct fell far short of the standards expected of the attorney general and minister for justice, the principal legal adviser to government, charged under Section 72(2) of the Constitution with ensuring that all government actions comply with the law. The committee finds that the disposal of certain landed properties was undertaken without clear statutory or regulatory frameworks governing the sale of forfeited immovable assets,” the report noted.
It added that in several instances, there was no evidence of formal authorisation, cabinet approval, or legally delegated authority underpinning the sale or transfer of landed properties.
According to the lawmakers, Mr Tambadou’s strained relations with Minister Njie whose ministry was “rightfully protecting” its exclusion in the asset management and sale process adversely affected the work of the cabinet sub-committee whose members include Ministers Musa Drammeh, Hamat Bah, Amie Faburay and former secretary general now Vice President Muhammed Jallow.
In light of the findings, the committee recommended that the executive, through the police, conduct criminal investigations, under the supervision of the Director of Public Prosecutions, and institute criminal proceedings against Tambadou, for, among other things, systematic and deliberate violations of the Public Finance Act 2014, abuse of office, and economic crimes.
Reprimand
The committee also recommended for actions to be taken against Tambadou’s successor Dawda Jallow. Tambadou resigned from office about four months after the exchange with Minister Njie and was replaced by Jallow.
The committee found that Jallow failed to correct all the “anomalies” created under his predecessor including the exclusion of the Ministry of Finance, and the operation of recovery accounts outside the treasury framework upon his assumption of office. ”The persistence of the same administrative arrangements after a change in the office holder demonstrates the failure of the succeeding Minister [Dawda Jallow] to reverse, regularise, or halt processes already rightly identified as unlawful, thus validating and perpetuating them,” the committee noted, adding that the continuation of the same arrangements indicated an institutional failure within the Office of the Attorney General.
In view of this finding, the committee recommended that the Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Dawda Jallow, be reprimanded for perpetuating and validating unlawful administrative arrangements established by his predecessor.
Source: The Standard
