By Aramata Jatta
The Attorney General and Minister of Justice Hon. Aboubacarr Tambadou has on Wednesday 24th June told Law makers that the Government have recovered a total of D1, 110,239,227 from the sold assets of the Former President of the Gambia Yahya Jammeh who is currently in exile Equatorial Guinea. This is just 11℅ of the total sold properties.
He made this remarks at the Assembly chambers in Banjul during the question and answer session of the fifth Assembly, as Hon. Halifa Sallah NAM for Serrekunda asked him to indicate to the members how much government spent on the Janneh Commission, how much has been recovered in cash and kind and how the government realistically expect to recover.
The Honorable Minister responded that as at 15 June 2020, our records at the Ministry of Justice indicates that, a total cost of D116, 909,077 associated with the Janneh Commission recovery effort between July 2017 and June 2020.
He highlighted that they have recovered a total amount of D1,110,239,227 net as well as an additional amount of D88,535,000 net which is committed but still outstanding.
Ba Tambadou explains that “the recoveries have all been paid into a designated special recoveries at the Central Bank of The Gambia under the control of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs except an amount of D50, 000,000 which was paid directly to the TRRC Victim’s Trust Fund as Governments initial contribution to the Fund.
He further explains that the total amount includes the proceeds of sale of some assets, payments made by some individuals against whom adverse findings were made by the Janneh Commission, and other monies generated from the activities of the Commission itself.
“We had expected to generate from the sale of all the properties forfeited to the state, and have already surpassed this figure in our overall assets recovery efforts.
Shedding lights on the realistically expect recovery, Ba Tambadou said it is difficult to ascertain at this point in time but not withstanding they expect to raise at leastD1.4 billion from the assets already identified for sale.
He however indicated that this amount may increase if the Ministerial Task Force adds other properties for sale.
