Cham said the KMC had an agreement with Espace Motors, and the loan was facilitated by AGIB based on their QGroup arrangements.
Lead Counsel Gomez informed him that the accounts officer of the KMC at AGIB at the time testified that KMC had previously approached them on the same matter but it was refused by the bank, and this was when Espace Motors came in.
The lead counsel told the witness that Espace Motors did not make any investment; instead an entity the KMC did not have a contract with made the payment.
Cham was asked about the payment of the insurance for the vehicles but he did not answer the question. He only talked about the duty waiver for the trucks, saying the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) asked them to pay D13.1 as tax. The lead counsel told him the KMC did not import the trucks because it was a company doing that.
Jaja said the trucks were meant for the KMC, and they expected that there would be a duty waiver on the trucks. He admitted that the KMC did not involve GRA in the process of importing the trucks. He did confirm that the GRA granted them duty waivers in previous transactions.
The repayment of the loan was that monies generated by the trucks would be used to offset the loan. Cham said there were no feasibility studies conducted to ascertain the viability of the repayment.
He said they were only “convinced” about it based on the statistics they had regarding the number of inhabitants and households in KMC.
The lead counsel lambasted the idea of putting taxpayers’ monies amounting to over a hundred million dalasis in a project without doing feasibility studies. The counsel emphasised that AGIB refused to give KMC a loan because they did not present anything feasible. “You are right on that point,” Jaja Cham affirmed.
Counsel Gomez put it to Cham that Espace Motors agreed with the terms because they knew they would get their monies from the KMC even though they knew the D10 payment to the trucks wouldn't raise the necessary funds.
Witness Jaja Cham said the trucks were used as the collateral, and the arrangement was that if the payments were not forthcoming, Espace Motors would have the power to withdraw the trucks.
Cham testified that the KMC further contracted Espace Motors to provide 8 skip bins without opening them for any tender. Since the trucks were customised, the KMC decided to give Espace Motors the said contract, he stated.
He acknowledged it was wrong, further admitting that he was the one who triggered that procurement as the deputy CEO then, but it was concluded by his successor.
