“No forgiveness” in anti-graft war, says Jammeh

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has given a group of more than 30 top officials accused of corruption two weeks to hand back illicitly earned income or face the consequences. Those targetted include the mayor of the capital Banjul and several former cabinet ministers, More than 30 serving and former government officials were rounded up on Tuesday night and taken to the headquarters of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) 24 hours after Jammeh received the report of an anti-corruption commission which he set up last year. The incriminated officials were released on Wednesday after being given a 4 April deadline to repay all the money which they allegedly owe the government of this small West African country. “There will be no forgiveness even if one flees to space or Mars and there will be no sacred cow,” Jammeh said in a statement. The government did not reveal how much those indicted were alleged to have pocketed in all. However, Manauel A Paul, the Nigerian judge who chaired the anti-corruption commission, told state television that former tourism minister Yankuba Touray, who was sacked from cabinet last year, had been asked to reimburse 2 million dalasis (US $70,000) in compensation for assets which he had acquired in an “unconvincing” way. Paul, who serves as a high court judge in the Gambia, said this was one of the largest sums demanded. . The anti-corruption commission began its public hearings last July on the eve of lavish celebrations to mark the 10th anniversary of Jammeh taking power in a military coup on 22 July 1994. There was some criticism in the media at the time of the president’s exemption from the hearings. Ministers filed before the commission spelling out how they acquired kitchen equipment, homes, small businesses or jewellery for their wives. The Gambia, which is entirely surrounded by Senegal, is one of the world’s poorest nations. According to the United Nations' Human Development Index, 59 percent of its 1.5 million people live on less than one dollar a day. Transparency International, the global corruption watchdog, cited the former British colony as suffering from rampant corruption in its 2004 survey, but noted there had been some improvement. Among those rounded up this week were the mayor of Banjul, Pa Sallah Jeng, former justice minister Pap Cheyassin Secka, former health minister Yankuba Kassama and former local government minister Momodou Nai Ceesay. Other prominent figures accused of corruption included Abdoulie Kujabi, a former director of the NIA, Tombong Saidy, a former head of the state-run Gambia Radio and Television Service, Ousman Mboge a former head of customs, Haddy Sallah, who once served as general manager at the central bank, and Habib Drammeh, an ex-director general of the Gambia Tourism Authority. The anti-corruption commission made a series of recommendations. These included the passage of new anti-corruption laws and the establishment of a permanent and independent commission to fight graft. It also recommended that Gambian children receive lessons about the evils of corruption throughout their education, from nursery school through primary and secondary school to university and that mechanisms be put in place to ensure effective monitoring of tax payments. Last month, the government sacked its police chief, who had been arrested with a former director of immigration, the head of the police criminal investigation unit and two supermarket owners, allegedly in connection with a probe into the sale of expired food. Jammeh, a former army lieutenant, said the battle against graft was the principle that brought him to power through a military coup in 1994 so the 10th anniversary of this event had been a good time to set up the anti-corruption commission. “We were the first to talk about probity, transparency, accountability and good governance so it is prudent that we take stock of the ten-year rule of the APRC [Alliance for Patriotic Re-orientation and Construction] government,’’ he said.