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GP depot supervisor testifies in multi-million dollar economic crime trial

May 18, 2022, 11:14 AM | Article By: Adama Tine

Depot supervisor and acting operation manager at Gam-Petroleum has told the court that Gam Petroleum used to be the only storage facility that has business relationships with the OMCs, oil marketing companies and international traders.

Lamin Touray is the second prosecution witness in the economic crime involving two Gam Petroleum former officials namely: Saihou Drammeh and Lamin Gassama, former managing director and operations manager at Gam-Petroleum respectively.

When the case was called on Monday, MD Mballow announced appearing for the state, while lawyer Christopher Emmanuel Mene and a team of lawyers appeared for the accused persons.

Continuing his testimony, Touray informed the court that the OMCs dealing with Gam Petroleum include, Atlas, Jah Oil, Petro Gas and GNPC, while international traders include Trafigura, ADAX, and PSTV.

At that juncture, he was asked about the relationship between Gam Petroleum and the international traders, but the witness responded that GP has a storage agreement with international traders but that agreement is beyond his control.

According to him, GP is the one responsible for discharging the vessels or tankers of products such as Gasoline, Gas Oil, Kerosine Fuel oil and other Liquefied Petroleum Gas.

Touray further told the court that the company is formally notified of the coming of vessels and nomination quantity of the products that GP is supposed to receive and that message is filtered down to the supervisors by GP and a ship-shore checklist will be prepared.

He indicated that the first page of that checklist would contain the quantities of the product that needs to be discharged and the name of the traders would be captured in that checklist which will be handed over to the loading master.

He also informed the court that when vessels arrive, the marine team will be sent on board including the post connection team; the mooring team; the loading master and the cargo surveyor and upon arrival on board, the connection team would proceed to the connection area together with the crew of the vessel.

After the above-mentioned process, he testified that the loading master and the cargo surveyor would proceed to the cargo control room where they will meet up with the chief officer of the vessel and conduct a meeting during which a checklist will be taken for confirmation and discharging plan will also be discussed in that said meeting.

He explained that after the meeting, a cargo document will also be requested and checklist will be signed by both loading masters and chief officer and they would agree on the quantity to be received.