By Fatou Sillah
Former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubacarr M. Tambadou, faced questions from the National Assembly’s Special Select Committee over why the Asset Management and Recovery Corporation (AMRC) was sidelined in the disposal of assets seized from former President Yahya Jammeh.
Lawmakers pressed Tambadou on why Alpha Barry, operating in a personal capacity, was appointed as receiver instead of AMRC, which was legally mandated to manage and dispose of state assets.
Tambadou explained that the Janneh Commission had flagged AMRC for “questionable activities” and recommended further investigations into its operations. Assigning AMRC responsibility for Jammeh’s asset disposal, he argued, would have contradicted those findings.
“So the Central Bank did not have the responsibility to dispose of assets. AMRC did. And here we’re talking about the disposal of assets,” Tambadou said, noting that the commission’s report had cautioned against entrusting AMRC with sensitive financial responsibilities before its operations were fully reviewed.
Committee members highlighted major transactions handled by Barry as receiver, including the sale of a Daniel Goddard Street property to the Gambia Ports Authority for D1 million, the Futurelec building to the Central Bank for D100.5 million, and Gambia Petroleum shares to Social Security, Star Oil, and GNPC for a combined D551 million.
Hon. Mbowe argued that government-to-government transactions of such scale—amounting to D652.5 million—raised concerns about oversight.
“So these three transactions alone, like we were saying, are government selling to government, amounting to 262 million. Now even if you take 10% of that, here you are talking about almost 65 million, and I can tell you the budget of the AMRC for five years is not even 65 million,” Honorable Mbowe said
Tambadou countered that such calculations were “a simplistic approach,” noting that Barry’s fees had been reduced in 2020 and that Parliament had been duly informed.
“But I think, honorable, that is a very simplistic approach to this process. First, Alpha Barry’s fees were reduced, I believe back in June 2020. I appeared before the National Assembly and informed the Assembly that when we started out the process, it exceeded our expectations,” the witness responded.
He stressed that Barry was appointed on the basis of his personal qualifications—experience in accounting, auditing, competence, integrity, and neutrality—rather than through his firm, Alpha Kapital.
“And I can confirm that my engagement with Mr. Alpha Berry was done in his individual capacity. Just like my engagement with Augustus Prom was done in his individual capacity, so the issue of Alpha Capital is misinformation, let me put it that way,” Tambadou clarified.
He reiterated that while AMRC was formally mandated to handle asset disposal, entrusting it with Jammeh’s multi-million dalasi portfolio without addressing the commission’s concerns would have been “irresponsible.”