GNPC explains inconsistent account receipts from APOGEE’

Njie was testifying on Tuesday 28 August 2024 before the Joint Committee of the Public Enterprise Committee (PEC) and the Finance and Public Accounts Committee (FPAC) on the ongoing petroleum saga involving US$30 million.

MD Njie was asked if GAM Petroleum had any business dealings with Greeg Energy or Ultimate Logistics. In response, he stated: "No, the only business we have is with Apogee for 8.850 metric tonnes as indicated in the invoice we sent."

MD Njie was then questioned about the receipts on their Request For Quotes (RFQ) which indicated three different account names: Apogee, Greeg Energy, and Ultimate Logistic.

He explained: "When we received the Ultimate Pitch invoice, our procurement manager was instructed to reach out to them to clarify why we were receiving an Ultimate Pitch invoice instead of Apogee. They clarified to us that it was their business practice in The Gambia, and that was the instruction they gave us. We have documentary evidence of this communication, which took place via email. For us, the most important thing is the payment instructions. We dealt with Apogee, and they provided us with this account for payment."

The co-chair of the joint committee, Hon. Abdoulie Mbowe, then questioned MD Njie on the inconsistency in terms of the letterheads of the invoices which indicate Ultimately Logistic, Apogee limited Gambia, Apogee FZE, and Apogee FZC on all.

Mr Njie replied that it was an oversight since the first payment that came stated: Ultimate Ltd., and they tried to seek clarification where the trader did indicate that they could go ahead with the payment, which they did and subsequently, all the invoices stated Apogee FZE aside from the last transaction in March.

Nevertheless, Hon. Mbowe cautioned against the continuous trend of the inconsistency of bank payment thus the commercial invoices remain the same.

“The payment where you have the bankers' name, Ecobank Gambia Limited, 42 Karibara Avenue, and it gives you three different account numbers in USD, GMD, and EUR. But then the account name is Ultimate Bank Apogee FZC. So the invoice name; the name of the customer, and Ecobank are not the same,” he observed.

“It appears that there are inconsistencies in the names and dates across the commercial invoices and payments. For instance, the commercial invoice dated January 10, 2024, states Apogee FZC with a total invoice of $1,335,000, while the payment to Ecobank is under the name Ultimate Bank Apogee FZC, dated May 5, 2024, for a total invoice of $65,417,000.”

Additionally, the account name is mentioned as Apogee Group in the commercial invoice dated October 2, 2023, with a value of $1,620,000. Notably, there are three account numbers in Ecobank such as USD, GMB, and EUR, under the name Ultimate Bank Apogee, which differs from the other accounts.”

Mr Njie acknowledged the review and referred to it as an “oversight”.

“The initial correction we requested was to ensure that the invoices they were paying reflected Apogee, as they were buying from Apogee. We questioned if the invoice stating ‘Ultimate Bank Apogee’ was acceptable, and we received a response stating that Ultimate Bank Apogee is the same as Apogee. This was comforting, partly through email correspondence,” he expressed.