By Sainey Darboe:
The managing director of Gambia Ports Authority, Ousman Jobarteh, has allegedly been involved in an elaborate financial scam that cost the country over D50 million in revenue, according to an internal audit report.
A source who spoke to Gunjuronline on the strictest condition of anonymity disclosed:
“There is a massive fraud at The Gambia Ports Authority. External editors were engaged and they found about D9 Million missing. But when internal auditors took a look at the books, they found out that the loss caused to the parastatal is over D50M and the MD is involved”.
The source added that the Ports boss, Ousman Jobarteh, has been making strenuous efforts to suppress the report and use the board to desist from making it public. But that’s where things get more complicated than he assessed, said the source.
“Under President Jammeh this kind of behavior was able to take root as long as he benefited. Now that Jammeh is gone,Ousman has a particular problem: the board is mostly a holdover from Jammeh era and they are not exactly on his team anymore if they ever were”.
The Ports Authority director, maintained the source, has a private clearing company which he has been using to do business at the Ports which has inflicted major losses in revenue to the country while making him immensely rich.
The beleaguered MD has been tied with Ous Boy Logistics which has been allegedly involved in the scam.
Gunjuronline has reached out to the Ports Authority for comment, but a response has not been forthcoming at this time.
However, Ousman Jobarteh has acknowledged the existence of the company in a media interview. He told Pa Nderry of Freedom newspaper in an interview a few months ago:
“A family friend of mine owns the company called OBL Logistics. His name is Ismaila Demba. I have no ties with the company”.
Ousman Jobarteh indicated he is being connected to the company owing to his personal proximity to the owner.
“It is because the guy who owns the company is a family friend. I am 100 percent sure that I have no ties with no shipping company. I work entirely for the ports. The owner of OBL is a family friend,”he concluded.
Kommentare