Jungle,
Very interesting reading .The information about your deal with Sankung Sillah
raised so many questions, having in mind also   projects that are said to be
soon here, for example the twenty or so factories to be built at Yundum
airport. I will come back to that to show the connections with the issue at
hand.
Your first dealing with the son of Sankung Sillah, shows the interest of the
market comes first before the nation, with all the profits that Gamtel is
marking yearly, to enter a contract that gives Sankung Sillah the guarantee
that what ever he produces for Gamtel will be bought should not have been any
problem for you Jungla.Liberal economist will say this will be against the
spirit and values of the free market, this was exactly what you indicated when
your refused to bind yourself to such a deal because of  price deference that
can occur in the large market. If the interest of the nation should come
before the idea of the laws of   the martket, then Jungle the first thing you
would have thought of is that (1) That it will save us from foreign exchange
problems in this deal (2) That this will mean an increase in production and
this will not only give jobs to those who are already working there but also
the possibilities of employing more workers and (3) It can even create grounds
to bring heads together to produce moulds in the country that will meet the
needs of Gamtel.Since I dont know of the difference of production cost between
Sankung Sillah an the Senegalese, I am not going to deal with that until we
know the truth .But for the future ,the millions that Gamtel have accumulated
for the past years could be used to stimulate local industries. The idea that
we will buy in millions from Senegal if they sell less is no good signal to
those coming to invest and the twenty or so factories to come.
 If Sankung Silla did not have the moulds to produced those dust-bins, should
the State not see the need for it and come to a deal with Sankung to buy the
moulds or help to get one, just like you did with the pipes.I am not here
saying that we should have all types of factories to produce all that we need,
what I am saying is that we should protect our industries, an example of such
should be set by partly owned government institution like Gamtel.
Yes again with the roads. The problem between West Field and Serre Kunda
Junction is not a problem of lack of big roads. The fact is you find such
places everywhere in this world. The problem has always been bad planning.
Within that small area in Serre Kunda, you have the biggest market in the
country, the most active car packing centre in the country, within that same
area, you have the biggest health centre of the biggest town in the country,
what do you expect to happen in such a place. You either moved the market or
make the place inaccessible for vehicles. We do agree that we need good roads;
we have different opinion on the size of these roads. The reason why I am
against a four lane road in the middle of town are (1) They are two expensive
and the Gambian population is still not yet 2 million (2) The world is getting
modern and very conscious of its resposibility, the question of the
environment is now a concern to all, this is why building of big roads has now
become an ideological discussion. More cars more pollution, there is no doubt
about that and the best way of solving such problems is to encourage
collective way to travel. For sometime back, I was reading a story about a
president who insisted that all his ministers who want to see him off or
welcome him back will have to travel with the buss that would be provided for
such occasions because he did not like seeing that long line of cars just to
see him off, waste of resources. I could not remember which president this was
but it is a typical example to show how important it is for people to travel
collectively and take care of the little resources that the nation have,
Offcourse you have to upgrade the GPTC to met such demands and (3) Safety for
the population is very important.

For Freedom
Saiks



















d-issues mailing list <[log in to unmask]> =====
>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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