“I’m a junior staff at the IEC and I have been following the progress of the tender process that has been going on for so long. My conscience won’t be at rest if I did not find way to tell Gambian people what I know about the whole process. Our bosses have received their share of the contract in advance and now they have no choice but to succumb to the will of ESI – Electoral Service International. 

The white man who is base in Belgium is the representative of ESI and keeps flying in and out of The Gambia. If our bosses at the IEC did not recommend this company believe me you will all witness serious problems. They first wrote to GPPA seeking for single sourcing to ESI and that request was turned down and they were asked to conduct it open tender.

They accept and did so with an exorbitant tender fee of D50,000 as a deterrent factor for other companies to stay away. This was their plan thinking other companies might not be interested due to the high bid fee. The tender process took place, four companies submitted their bid namely ESI – Electoral Service International, Ekemp International and Dermalog and Smart Business Group. At the first bid submission and tender opening ESI submitted and he was sitting upstairs for hours waiting for the opening. Whoever witness this opening would attest to the fact that ESI submitted only three A4 envelopes containing their documents and to our surprises as junior staff of IEC we saw in the second submission a carton full of documents. During the first opening the only company that filed and included all related documents was one of the International companies but not ESI.

Our observations was when GPPA recommended re-tendering the ESI insider at IEC must have snapped the formats of the other most responsive company’s documents and sent them to ESI. Whoever denies these facts must ask IEC to bring all the documents of the companies and do a panel review of the documents submitted by all the four companies. Mark my word this is my loyalty to the nation, I cannot come out in the open and say anything despite the fact I know everything that has transpired. One thing I want to make clear is the chairman Alieu Momar Njai has no hand in this, it’s his subordinates who are doing this and making him believe that ESI is the only credible company to carry out this. 

They completed their evaluation and believe it or not they have done it again by recommending the same company ESI – Electoral Service International as the most responsive but it’s all cooked up so as to cover themselves and avoid having to refund the $200,000 given to them by ESI in advance. As I write this letter to this media house the files of the four companies are transported to GPPA’s office for further evaluation by GPPA since last week and the whole country’s faith and trust is in the hands of GPPA to do what is right and stay away from the manipulative of my people at the IEC. If I know my security will be guaranteed I swear I will come and bring facts. The ESI man stays at the Kasumai lodge near Coco ocean and I spy on my bosses and I saw some of them visiting him at different odd hours. 

My advice to the competitive companies is if GPPA succumbs to the will of IEC and gives this contract to ESI please my advice is take them to court and challenge them you will surely emerge as the winner. The whole country should not sit and watch some bad elements of IEC plunge our election registration into uncontrollable delays due to their selfish reasons even after knowing ESI, their favourite company is not the most responsive company in the bidding.

I suggested GPPA, National Audit, IEC, National Assembly Select Committee, Ministry of Finance and some other independent consultants to join and do a panel review on all these four contenders participating in the bidding process. 

I thank you all and I remain loyal to my country.”

 

Insider from IEC.