Mr Singh wants the general public and the company’s esteemed customers to be rest assured that the Electronic Cargo Tracking Note (ECTN) services it provides in the country is alive and kicking.
His response followed a reported request from the Trade ministry requesting that the application of the Electronics Cargo Tracking Note (ECTN)services “be suspended with immediate effect” until all necessary conditions are met.
Singh told this reporter on Friday 6 December that on 2 December this year a letter was sent to GTMS office in Banjul addressed to the general manager from the Ministry of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment signed by Abdoulie Jammeh, deputy Permanent Secretary, on behalf of the PS, requesting that “application of the Electronics Cargo Tracking Note (ECTN) services be suspended with immediate effect until all the conditions precedence are met”.
The general manager acknowledged GTMS office received the said letter from the Trade ministry but did not honour the request. Rather GTMS responded to the letter the next day 3rd December 2024, for not honouring or accepting the ministry’s request.
According to the general manager, GTMS is a legally registered security compliance company in the Gambia. Thus the Trade ministry cannot just take immediate decision threatening to suspend their services in The Gambia.
GTMS was cleared to start implementation or operation of the ECTN services in the country since September 2 this year by the Trade ministry, he claimed.
“We are a company that is providing security services,” he argues. “We also employ over thirty Gambians, and GTMS is paying office rent regularly. Therefore, the Ministry of Trade cannot just suspend our services with immediate effect.”
All the conditions indicated in the letter from the Ministry of Trade had been responded to by the GTMS in a letter sent to the trade ministry to be healthily discussed.
“GTMS is still operating since then and the ECTN services in The Gambia are not suspended,” Mr Singh assures the public, particularly the company’s customers.
When contacted for further clarification, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Trade, Lamin Dampha, confirmed that a letter was sent to GTMS office requesting that the application of ECTN services “be suspended with immediate effect until all the conditions precedence are met”.
However, PS Dampha aptly informed this reporter that GTMS responded to the request and sent a letter to the Trade ministry.“We are currently discussing their response letter and by next week we will provide clear report on the matter,” he said, confirming not effecting the suspension of ECTN services in The Gambia. “Discussions are ongoing and it is multi-sectoral matter,” he cautioned.
Also, contacting the clearing agents on the matter, some raised concern over the numerous “illegal” port charges, saying that failing to arrest the situation could lead to strike.
In a related but separate development, the Secretary General and Party Leader for the United Democratic Party (UDP), Lawyer Ousainu Darboe, has assured that his party will pay close attention to the complaints made particularly by women.
He was responding to concerns made by various communities including residence of Balangarr Kerr Nderr at a meeting held at the community on Monday 9 December, 2024, at the ongoing nationwide tour embarked on by the UDP.
The community of Balangarr Kerr Nderr in Lower Saloum, according to residents, has been hit by water shortage.
However, Darboe clarified that he will not give an immediate assurance to quickly respond to their request for immediate provision of water supply, but he said, certainly, he and his members will discuss it.
He emphasised that water is a basic necessity in one’s life, adding that “every individual in this country deserves to have access to potable water and good living conditions.” However, he urged community members and their satellite villages to live as one family and not to tolerate tribalism amongst themselves.
At another general meeting held at Panchang village, Upper Saloum, Darboe further reassured supporters that his party is not tribal party.
He emphasised that effective politics is the one that is ready to stand for the interest of the nation. He assured that the UDP is ready to support women and youth, saying that no woman would have suffered under his leadership.
In an earlier interview with The Point, Fatou Sallah of Balangarr Kerr Nderr, decried that her community is still without taps which she said has been a huge burden on the women.
“You cannot find a single tap in any of our homes in the whole community. We are the only women still carrying big pans and buckets of water on our heads from a distance for all our domestic works and we can only see electricity when we go to other communities, and we are still in darkness,” she explained.
“We are actually suffering with this shortage of water and lack of electric power, so we definitely need support,” she explained. She said “we need boreholes to help us address this shortage in our community.”
“We also have a huge rich field land but we do not have materials to cultivate rice and other crops,” she said, noting that their decision to defect to the UDP was based on a roundtable amongst the women themselves after realising that they have been used and been fooled by other parties with false promises.
She concluded from now on, they would rally behind the United Democratic Party, hoping that there will be positive changes as they take the leadership after the 2026 presidential elections.
