By Fatou Sillah
Former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubacarr M. Tambadou, has told the National Assembly Special Select Committee investigating the sale and disposal of assets belonging to former President Yahya Jammeh that Augustus Prom was never dismissed as receiver of Jammeh’s frozen assets. Instead, he explained, Prom’s mandate ended automatically in accordance with the Anti-Money Laundering and Combating of Terrorist Financing Act.
Tambadou clarified that Prom’s appointment by the High Court was linked to a restraining order lasting six months. Once that order expired, he said, the receivership concluded by operation of law.
“So, therefore, he was never terminated, he was never sacked; his tenure as receiver expired together with the order that the High Court gave,” Tambadou testified.
The former justice minister also rejected claims that he unlawfully replaced Prom with another receiver, stressing that such allegations had caused significant personal and family distress. He said he felt compelled to correct the public record.
Tambadou further disclosed that he personally negotiated Prom’s commission, settling on a 10 percent fee that was paid throughout the receivership. He noted that, although the Commission of Inquiry had recommended reducing the commission to three percent for two hotels owned by the Social Security and Housing Finance Corporation, Prom rejected the proposal and continued to receive the agreed 10 percent until his mandate ended.