Saiks,
Perhaps I concur with some of the points that you raised in your first
response by not addressing them. However, in the case of government buying
imported dustbins instead of locally manufactured dustbins by Alh. Sankung
Sillah and Sons, things might not be as simple as you seem to belief. Do you
know whether he has the moulds to make dustbins? Does the market for
dustbins exist in The Gambia?
Let me now try to answer the above questions by explaining why Gamtel used
to buy and still sometimes buys PVC pipes from Senegal and not from Alh.
Sankung Sillah and sons. Some 7 or so years ago, I was asked to arrange for
the testing of the PVC pipes that Sankung Sillah makes to verify whether we
could use them for underground conduits to run in cables. The testing was
arranged and after all necessary tests were carried out, it was found out
that their pipes were even better than the specifications for such jobs.
However, they did not have the correct moulds for the dimensions that we
normally use. I suggested to his son, who was then running things, that they
should consider buying a mould that can produce the type of pipes that are
suitable for our needs as we normally buy over 15,000 pipes per year at a
total cost of between 3 and 5 million French Francs. Unfortunately he wanted
us to gurantee that if they invest in a mould for the production of pipes
for the exclusive use of Gamtel, Gamtel would buy them. This gurantee,
Gamtel would not give as their prices had to be competetive with those pf
Senegal to justify us buying from them instead of from Senegal. It was at
this stage that negotiations between the companies broke down.
About two years ago, the Pa (Alh. Sankung Sillah himself) came across our
correspondence with his company regarding the production of pipes for us. We
had a meeting with him and he gave the impression that he was not aware of
what had transpired between our two companies. When the Pa learnt of the
full story, he promised to look into the matter and would come back to us.
Apparently, the moulds at the time costed about $22,000 only.
Within a few weeks, he was producing what we wanted and within a year we
bought pipes from him worth over $150,000 (more than seven times the cost of
the mould). This was very interesting for us as it saved us much-needed
foreign currency. THEREFORE SAIKS, PERHAPS THEY DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT MOULD
OR THE MARKET TO MAKE THE NECESSARY INVESTMENT DOES NOT EXIST!!
Secondly, it may have something to do with their pricing. I know for a fact
that sometimes we do not buy from him but instead buy from Senegal simply
because, despite the Senegalese company having to transport their pipes all
the way to our stores as well as paying the 1.5% ECOWAS tax; and we having
to pay customs duty, the pipes we buy from Senegal are on many occasions
cheaper than those of Sankung Sillah and Sons by between 5 and 8%. This
percentage, though small, cannot be ignored when purchasing in millions.
THEREFORE COST MAY BE A FACTOR HERE.
Coming to the four-lane road, you don't seem to approve of it and I can
attribute that to the fact most of our roads are really congested. Do you
know that it sometimes takes a good thirty (30) minutes to just move from
Westfield Clinic to the market due to the amount of congestion on our roads.
In my honest opinion, continuing the four lanes from Banjul to Yundum where
it links up with the Kombo Coastal highway is not a bad idea at all.
Afterall, road constructions are not cheap and if we are investing in it,
let it be done to the best of our ability. I strongly believe in doing
things right the first time.
Finally, Saiks, whenever you come for holidays again, please visit anyone of
the newly constructed schools or hospitals to see for yourself whether some
of the stories about their deplorable conditions are really true.
It is true that some families are struggling to make ends meet, but it is
not the duty of government to feed them. Government can only show the way
and provide some support. To this end, anybody in the know will tell you
that government spends as much as 25% of GDP on education. The impact of
some of these investments, that many of you dismiss as irrelevant, may not
be easily recognisable to you but to those of us living here, the impact is
enormous. These are long-term investments.
Have a good day, Gassa
There is a time in the life of every problem when it is big enough to see,
yet small enough to solve. -Mike- Levitt-
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