Works Permanent Secretary Appears in Court

The two former senior officials at the Department of State for Foreign Affairs are being tried on criminal charges of conspiracy to commit a felony, making false document, uttering false documents, and abuse of office.

Testifying as Pw2, Bakary Houma told the court that he had been a Permanent Secretary at the Department of State for Works construction and Infrastructure Development since 7thOctober 2007 and that he does not know Ebou Manneh a driver at the said Department. He said an investigating officer came to his office to enquire whether Ebou Manneh is an employee of the Department of State for Works Construction and Infrastructure Development. "I called the Records Office to bring the personal file of Ebou Manneh, but they could not find it," he stated. He added that when the investigating officer insisted that Ebou Manneh was an employee at that Department, he called a senior official to his office to enquire whether he knows any driver by the name Ebou manneh at the said Department of State. The official confirmed that Ebou Manneh was an employee at that department but was withdrawn to the Studi International Contracting Authority for the construction of roads.

Further testifying, Permanent Secretary Houma stated that any employee at the Department of State for Works Construction and Infrastructure Development is supposed to have a personal file. " The investigating officer on the Ebou Manneh case asked me to put into writing the information given to me about Ebou Manneh," he revealed. " I wrote the letter on March 2008 and signed it," he concluded.

Under cross-examination by defence counsel Hawa Sisay-Sabally, the state witness revealed that he was informed by Karamo Jaiteh the current Director General of National Road Authority that when the then Secretary of State for Works, Construction and Infrastructural Development Balla Garba Jahumpa, was transferred to the Department of State for Foreign Affairs, he went with Ebou Manneh. As to who gave instructions for the then SOS to go with Ebou Manneh he said he did not know.

The case was adjourned to 13thOctober 2008.