More charges against AMRC officials

The accused persons are Abdoulie B. Tamba, the corporation’s former managing director, Abdoulie Dibba and Yusupha M. Jaiteh, both former senior officials of the AMRC.

The new amended charges which were read to them during yesterday’s proceedings included economic crime, stealing and abuse of office.

Musa Sarr, AMRC’s acting recovery officer, continued his testimony and told the court that it is the taskforce that could identify the debtors by going through the system and extract list of all the debtors with their outstanding balance on the information that was fed in the computer.

He adduced that he issued notes and invoices to customers and the price amount, stating that the issued notes show the names of the customer, the telephone number of the customer, and the quantity of goods and the amount of money, as well as the signature of the person who approved the issued note.

Mr Sarr said that the issued notes were usually approved by the 2nd accused person, Abdoulie Dibba, the commercial director, and the acting financial director, Yusupha Jaiteh.

He added that any time payment was made, he used to get a copy of the receipt, and the cashier also supplied him with the information for him to update the account, adding that he reconciled the account at least every two weeks.

“We extract list of customers with their outstanding debt, and after going for the customer for several time without tracing him or her, we term him or her as absconding debtor,” Mr Sarr told the court.

At that juncture, the Director of Public Prosecutions, applied to tender the extracted list of consignments, after it was identified by the witness.

The extracted list of consignments was tendered and admitted without any objection, and the list of absconding debtors, which was said to be extracted from the computer, was also tendered and marked as an exhibit.

Mr Sarr further told the court that there was a D15million outstanding balance, which they could not trace or recover.

Under cross-examination by the defence counsel, the witness told the court that he obtained an Advance Diploma in ICM, and a Diploma in IT, but he has no qualification in bookkeeping and accounting.

The case continues on 18 December 2012.

Count one stated that Abdoulie B. Tamba, Abdoulie Dibba and Yusupha M. Jaiteh, between 2009 and 2010, at Banjul, within the jurisdiction of the court whilst holding public office, willfully and recklessly caused monetary loss to the Assets Management and Recovery Corporation (AMRC) to the tune of D15, 450,000 by selling rice and cement to various individuals on credit without proper collaterals.

The charge sheet on count two stated that Abdoulie B. Tamba, Abdoulie Dibba and Yusupha M. Jaiteh, between 2009 and 2010, at Banjul, within the jurisdiction of the court whilst holding public office, willfully and recklessly caused monetary loss to the Assets Management and Recovery Corporation (AMRC) to the tune of D7,200,000 by fraudulently converting same to the use of Samcad Holding.

Count three read that Abdoulie Dibba and Yusupha M. Jaiteh, and other at large, between 2009 and 2010, at Banjul, within the jurisdiction of the court, whilst holding public office, in abuse of the authority of their office, took a loan of D67,200,000 on behalf of Assets Management and Recovery Corporation (AMRC) without the necessary approval of the Board of Directors.

Count four indicated that Abdoulie Dibba and Yusupha M. Jaiteh, and other at large, between 2009 and 2010, at Banjul, within the jurisdiction of the court, whilst holding public office, in abuse of the authority of their office, took a loan of D49,751,520, on behalf of Assets Management and Recovery Corporation without the necessary approval of the Board of Directors.

Count five stated that Abdoulie Dibba and Yusupha M. Jaiteh, and other at large, between 2009 and 2010, at Banjul, within the jurisdiction of the court, whilst holding public office, fraudulently converts to the useof Samcad Holding Ltd the sum of D7,200,000, being money belonging to the Asset Management and Recovery Corporation.