SECRETARY TO CABINET DENIES CONCEALING DOCUMENTS OF JAMMEH’S ASSETS Handed 72 hrs to provide files

The National Assembly’s Special Select Committee investigating the disposal of former president Jammeh’s assets, yesterday issued at least a 72- hour ultimatum to the Secretary to Cabinet and Head of Civil Service Alieu Njie to provide all cabinet documents relating to the sale of the assets for inspection by the committee’s investigators.
Njie, who took office in 2023, informed the committee that when he was taking over he did not find any specific files on the Janneh Commission in his handing over note from his predecessor, adding that the cabinet office too does not maintain a specific record regarding the sales and disposal of the assets in question.
The secretary to cabinet also claimed that he did not witness any discussion on any file relating to the government’s White paper on the Janneh Commission since his appointment.
However, Lead Counsel Lamin M Dibba of the parliamentary inquiry committee accused Njie of wasting the committee’s time when he initially denied knowledge of documents he was asked to provide in his first statement to the committee, only to acknowledge the existence of some documents after the committee’s chief investigator confronted him with some reference numbers of letters either sent to or from the Office of the President regarding the Janneh Commission.
Njie responded that there were three levels of files at the Office of the President including a “confidential file” which is only accessible by senior officials and that the two documents he was able to see after their references were provided to him by the committee’s investigators, were extracted from that confidential file.
At this point, Lead Counsel Dibba told the witness that   the committee is not happy that he only acknowledged the existence of these documents much later and not from the beginning. “Can you explain why were they not disclosed from the onset?”,  Counsel Dibba asked.
Njie responded: “You can only disclose something that you have seen. I only received these files after getting the references”.
Counsel Dibba reminded the witness that the reference numbers of the letters are actually from his own office- the office of the secretary general and secretary to cabinet. Njie argued that there is a main file for the entire Office of the President and another for the cabinet office. “So if letters like these are addressed to the secretary to the cabinet, the main office will just send it to me. But these ones I saw are from the confidential file and I only saw them later,”   he explained.
Njie was tasked to explain whether he had made a thorough search of all files before making his first response to the committee. He replied  that he did not search for all the files and when he was reminded that it is illegal to conceal documents from the committee, Njie replied: “I don’t like lying and nobody can take me to that route. This information is important to me and to the Gambian people, so I will continue looking for it.”
The secretary to cabinet also rejected any suggestion that he was put under pressure to conceal documents from the inquiry.
Asked to clarify his statement that he spoke with two of his predecessors including the current vice president Muhammed BS Jallow about his involvement in the ministerial taskforce, Njie replied that he only consulted VP Jallow about the report.
At this point Njie attempted to submit the few documents he provided but he was overruled by committee chairman Abdoulie Ceesay who said the committee will not accept them until the full file is provided.
Other lawmakers including Sheriff Sarr and Alagie Mbow expressed dissatisfaction with Njie’s testimony with Mbow accusing him of “not taking the committee seriously,” which he denied.
Chairman Ceesay also asked Njie to explain why documents relating to the Janneh Commission, which was a matter of transparency and public concern, are kept in a confidential file. Njie responded: “It is for proper record keeping so that it would not be misplaced.”

Source: The Standard