Mr Bah was giving evidence over crucial council matters before the Local Government Commission of Inquiry (LGCI) as investigations into local government affairs deepen. He is the councilor for Giboro Ward; he was first elected in May 2018 and re-elected in May 2022.
He was the chairman of the Development Committee, secretary to the Establishment and Appointment Committee, member of the Market Committee and a member of the Social Committee.
He testified that the Development Committee used to sit at least once every month or sometimes twice a month. He was handed the file containing the meeting minutes of the Development Committee. There were no meetings for 2019, while the years 2020, 2021 and 2022 had one meeting minute. There was none for 2023. He could not provide any coherent answer. Instead, he relayed a piece of information he received from his secretary, Bubacar N. Kanteh of Kartong Ward, about missing files.
Bah said the files were placed somewhere at the office of the vice chairperson, but they went missing. He added that there were copies of the meeting minutes. He was asked to provide the copies on or before Wednesday (this week). Nonetheless, he stated that the Social Committee was very dormant.
The development committee chair was asked about the ward allocation he received from the Brikama Area Council. He testified that he received it only once and it was in 2019, and the amount was D500,000). He was asked to account for the money.
Giving details over the emergence of these ward allocations; he stated that the idea came from the Development Committee that all the wards should be provided with an allocation for their own development initiatives.
He added that they were informed that the funds available could not serve the entire 28 wards, thus bring about the idea of application and setting criteria. The criteria were developed by the Planning and Development Unit of the council, and that included a ward must have an account, proposed plan and evidence of meeting minutes.
He maintained that in the first disbursement, only 5 wards filed their documents, and they all fulfilled the requirements. He held that equal opportunity was accorded to all the wards but only 5 applied. During the second disbursement, according to him, the number of wards that applied was more than 5, and there was vetting done to see those that complied with the requirements. However, the Development Committee decided that the 5 wards would be allocated: two from Kombo, two from the Foni and 1 minority from Jabang representing Gambia Democratic Congress (GDC).
The BAC official testified that he was a member of the selection team, and his ward was given the allocation with the claim that they fulfilled all requirements.
The Commission noted that information about that process was not contained in the Development Committee file, but Bah nonetheless claimed there were records. He was instructed to bring the records to the Commission on Wednesday (this week). Contrary to what he claimed, one of the councilors had previously testified that 9 wards were allocated instead of 10.
Mr Ousman Bah was informed about the claims that the process of allocation was biased, but he rubbished these claims, saying all of the wards had equal opportunity and those that fulfilled the criteria were allocated the funds.
