Sacking of Habib Drammeh as Secretary General & Head of Civil Service

At the end of business day last week, the presidency in The Gambia announced the firing of Secretary General, Habib Drammeh. Predictably, the sacking of one of the most elevated public servants from one of the most politically connected families in New Gambia has set the rumour mills in full spin.

Habib Drammeh wanted Manjang and Njie fired by President Barrow

An insider, who spoke to Gunjur News Online on the strictest conditions of confidentiality, explained that the former Secretary General didn’t possess a stellar reputation, which was no aid to his quest for longevity in the coveted post. The source added: “Habib Drammeh was director of Gambia Tourism Board where he was accused of financial misappropriation and sent to jail”. If being sacked from his position at Gambia Tourism Board and sent to penitentiary was meant to encourage improved behavior, the results didn’t seem positively evident, according to the source. “Habib Drammeh is a very corrupt man. He was put in charge of GTSC bus service and he mismanaged the finances. He took out a personal ATM card which he was using during weekends at the expense of the company,” added the source. The source, who is a major political hack for United Democratic Party, further revealed that matters came to a head when he was called by the board to explain his unauthorised use of funds, which he failed to do with the very real threat of legal action by the board headed by Social Security MD Muhammed Manjang. “Herein lies the problem. Habib Drammeh knows Muhammed Manjang is pursuing the matter of his mismanagement of funds so he tried to get him fired from his position at Social Security. Then he also had a beef with Mambury Njie because he was the SG who recommended for his prosecution when he mismanaged funds at Gambia Tourism Board”. Despite his checkered history and conviction, as well as stint in the penitentiary, Habib Drammeh seemed to enjoy the full trust of the Gambia’s first civilian president in two decades until two weeks ago. Added the source: “ Barrow is really slow to take action, but the last straw that broke the camel’s back is when he gave Barrow a list of people to fire in the Public Service on the basis of incompetence. This list includes Mambury Njie and Muhammed Manjang with whom he had problems. This list was given to Barrow before his trip to China. That’s when all the trust was gone and Barrow decided to fire him”.