Gambia Participates: Executive Director Attributes NAWEC’s Ongoing Electricity Crisis to Institutional Corruption and Negligence

By Makutu Manneh

Marr Nyang, Executive Director of Gambia Participates, has attributed the National Water and Electricity Company’s (NAWEC) persistent electricity challenges to institutional corruption and negligence, arguing that the country’s recurring power outages cannot be explained solely by technical failures.

Speaking on Coffee Time with Peter Gomez, Nyang rejected official narratives that characterize NAWEC’s operational difficulties as primarily technical, insisting that deeper governance issues are at the root of the utility provider’s struggles.

“The greatest technical problem that continues to undermine reliable energy supply at NAWEC is not in the engines. It is institutional negligence and corruption,” Nyang said.

To support his argument, Nyang cited several incidents that have surfaced within the utility company in recent years. He referred to a 2023 case in which engineers responsible for maintaining generators at a NAWEC station in Basse were accused of stealing 71 gallons of fuel intended to power the generators.

According to Nyang, incidents of this nature directly contribute to service disruptions but are often concealed behind explanations of technical malfunction.

“When such things happen, and electricity supply is interrupted, the public is told it is a technical problem, when in reality the issue stems from corruption,” he said.

Nyang also referenced a reported attempt by senior NAWEC officials to influence a supplier to inflate an invoice by D3.5 million. He noted that the matter was not merely an allegation, but one that the company had publicly acknowledged.

“This is not an allegation. NAWEC itself confirmed it,” he said.

The civil society advocate questioned the adequacy of the disciplinary measures taken in response to the incident, noting that the reported consequence was the termination of the treasury manager’s contract.

“Where is the accountability in that?” Nyang asked. “A person breaches the code of conduct, engages in conduct that undermines public trust, and the outcome is simply termination of a contract.”

He argued that such responses reflect a broader pattern in the handling of corruption cases within public institutions.

“That is what we often see when people are accused of corruption, especially grand corruption. They are either suspended or their contracts are terminated, but there is rarely meaningful accountability,” he said.

Nyang concluded that unless NAWEC confronts what he described as entrenched institutional weaknesses, the utility company’s electricity supply challenges are likely to persist.