The GPPA top official began his testimony by shedding light on the 2019 BAC Procurement Review Report.
“What is a market survey and why are they important?” asked the Deputy Lead Counsel Patrick Gomez, thumbing Page 27, which has the heading ‘Value For Money’.
“A market survey,” the witness said, “is a trying to find out about what prevails in the market in terms of availability of goods and services, in terms of their prices, in terms of their quality, so on and so forth.”
“So then it is important for a procurement authority to know who they will award a particular contract to in relation to these factors, one of which is pricing,” said counsel.
The witness responded in the affirmative, wholly agreeing with the counsel.
“For the year 2019, your office found out that for Brikama Area Council, most of the procured items, the prices were exceptionally high. Can you please discuss more on that?” deputy lead counsel asked the witness again.
“Actually … our reviewers … looked at all the transactions that the Brikama Area Council conducted for the period under review. For some of the items, they tried to look at the amount paid compared to what prevailed in the market, because, of course, we are all living in The Gambia, and when a price is given, you will be able to also compare it to what prevails in the market. So the review revealed that for some of the items, the prices far exceeded what prevailed in the market.
Quizzed why he thinks it was the case that an institution was routinely purchasing items at an “exceptionally high” price, he stated the lack of a proper market survey and that it could also have been deliberate for some fraudulent financial gains.
