Central Bank Five Paraded for Trial; Baba Jobe, Lang Conteh Contend With
Brand New Case Today

The Independent (Banjul)
NEWS
March 1, 2004
Posted to the web March 1, 2004

By Sana Camara
Banjul

Five individuals formerly in the senior cadre of the Central Bank, who were
recently charged with multiple "economic crimes" against the state, will
have their case mentioned for plea before Justice M.A Paul of the High
Court today.

The Central Bank five to appear today include Clarke Bajo, ex governor and
Lang Conteh, former manager of the bank's foreign exchange department and
beleaguered politician Baba Jobe. They are being held accountable along
with other former officials of the bank for alleged crimes, which happened
while they saw service with the Central Bank between 2002 and 2003. They
were reportedly given outlays of over D222 million to deal with an
intractable crisis of stability with the local currency whose value had
dwindled considerably over the past four years.

In criminal case number 3 of 2004, the case of Lang Conteh, Baba Jobe and
others versus the state will be mentioned for plea while in criminal case
number 2 of 2004, Betty Saine, Bigay Ceesay, Lang Conteh and three
unspecified others will also be paraded before Justice Paul on the same day
(today). A Nigerian identified as Onyeka Okenwa and three others will all
be mentioned for plea. Save for Baba Jobe who already faces charges in the
High Court this is the first time they will appear before Justice Paul.
Honorable Jobe has an ongoing case before Justice Paul in the matter of the
YDE, the GPA and Customs and Excise, a case which will also be heard today.

The rest of the Central Bank five are Haddy Sallah, Abdoulie Capu Cham and
another bank executive, a Nigeria identified as Phillip Akibogum.

They have all been charged under Section 5 subsection A of the Economic
Crimes Decree No 16 for allegedly causing millions of dalasi of financial
losses to the state after they were entrusted funds to offset the trend of
the depreciating local currency against which regional and international
currencies were rallying gains.

Between 2002 to February 2003, Swiss Franc 9, 833, 189.64 (D224, 688,383.27
million) was allocated to the Central Bank to stabilise the serious
fluctuation of the dalasi, a task that in principle should have lasted for
two days but which was to drag on for two years apparently due to lack of a
serious thrust from the senior personnel at the bank entrusted with the
task. Instead they were found to have been involved in illegal side
contracts.

By this token Julakay Engineering and Construction, Camelot Radio and
Production Services, Camelot Asset and Management Holding and Wechet Faling
were awarded illegal contracts and have been charged for their alleged part
in the Central Bank scam.

With their arrest, leading to subsequent charges preferred against them for
their roles in what is the most outrageous economic crime this country has
known since the dawn of the Second Republic, startling revelations have
been made pertaining to who is who in the scale of shares for the four
business outfits. For Julakay, Baba Jobe is the highest shareholder with 40
percent, while Ansumana Marena and Foday Lang Sarr have 30 and 15 percent
respectively.

For the relatively little known Camelot Radio and Production Services, Lang
Conteh holds the biggest shares of 50 percent, while Baba Jobe lays claim
to 49 percent as advertiser Aziz Willan controls 1 percent.

With Camelot Assets and Management Holding, Lang Conteh controls 51 percent
of the shares, while his teenage daughter Bintou Conteh has 49 percent in
her name.

With Wachet Faling, Mbawula Cham wife of ex Central Bank Governor Clark
Bayo controls 26 percent of the shares. Bintou Conteh (Lang Conteh's
daughter) has 24 percent. Betty Saine and Njarga have 25 percent
respectively.

This major shakeup at the Central Bank comes barely a month after the World
Bank issued what passed off as a worrisome statement, expressing disquiet
over the country's economy. The World Bank lamented the fact that
macroeconomic imbalances have worsened as evidenced by the weak growth
performances, high inflation, the sharp depreciation of the exchange rate
and an increasing fiscal deficit. The monetary growth has been
substantially higher than warranted, provoking the wrath of the Brettonwood
institutions who had reportedly threatened to put their involvement to prop
up the Gambian economy temporarily on hold if "sanity" did not return to
the country's economic system. One recommendation by the IMF was for the
government to sack senior executives of the bank who were directly blamed
for the uninspiring economic performance of the past two years.

The IMF's displeasure was glaring in its end of year statement about the
country's economic downturn which was underlined by the following
observations: "Moreover information that has recently been made available
to the staff suggests that data and foreign international reserves provided
to the Fund earlier may have been significantly overstated and that there
were associated inaccuracies in the data on government expenditure, fiscal
balances and credit flows in 2001. These developments threaten to impede
progress on poverty reduction.

Discussion on the country's PRGF supported programme, which is currently
off tract, could be resumed once additional information had been received
and understanding is reached on the appropriate corrective actions. A
resumption of the Fund's assistance and donors budgetary support is
important in bringing about a return to macroeconomic stability and
reducing poverty in the Gambia. The managing Director of the IMF has
written to the Gambian authorities regarding the understanding necessary to
bring the PRGF supported programme back on track.

The fund's staff is also pursuing the issues regarding data on foreign
international reserves with the authorities to ascertain the relevant
facts".


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