Chairman/Mayor Yanks Darboe

IN WCR: INAUGURATION OF A MARKET SHED AT NEMA FULA K***A FUNDED BY BAC WARD DEVELOPMENT FUNDS OF 2024!

Just as BAC is about to disburse this 2025, BAC Ward Development Fund 2025 on Thursday, 20th February 2025; we are today gathered at Nema Fula K***a near Jambangjelly to inaugurate this beautiful market shed for our women of the West Coast Region in Nema Fula K***a.

This market is funded from the BAC 2024 Ward Development Funds of D500,000 through Sanyang Ward Development Committee under the leadership of the Hon. Councillor Boto Bojang!

BAC - ensuring development reaches every part of our region and every community gets their fair share of our limited resources and revenues!

Moment to cherish..

In our strive to register development in every part of West Coast Region, the Council under the leadership of Hon. Chairman Yanks Darboe poised to raise the ward development fund from D500,000 to D1M for each ward.

Join us on the 20th February to celebrate this remarkable moment.

Tell them, we say ‘No To Barrow Third Term’! No to NTBTT! The more they threaten and rant about it, the more they motivate us to say it even louder ‘No To Barrow Third Term’!

If they have any integrity, they would all resign at the IEC, but just like everywhere else in this administration, there is zero integrity! Hence no one will take responsibility and resign! Gambia is truly a failed state under Adama Barrow!

At the Seoul City Smart Life Forum 2024

May Allah have mercy on the souls of the 7 NAWEC/KEI employees and grant them Jannatul Firdaus! What a tragedy! My condolences to their friends, colleagues and family members and the entire Gambia!

You can steal Baba’s votes to Presidency, but you cannot steal the love of his supporters for him!! He will always be the Baba of the nation! Long live Baba Lawyer Baa ANM Ousainou Darboe!!!

BAC REACTS TO WHATSAPP AUDIO MAKING ROUNDS REGARDING BAC 59 GREEN COMPACTOR TRUCK

The attention of the Brikama Area Council has been drawn to an audio making rounds in the Social Media WhatsApp platform purporting to be from a person, who claimed to be an employee of BAC, as a labourer. In the audio, the person alleged the Honourable Chairman of BAC, Yankuba Darboe of being involved in a corruption surrounding the BAC 59 vehicle.

For the benefit of the general public, the council now wishes to make the following clarifications about the unfounded allegations of the said audio.

Firstly, the Green Vehicle assigned with the Vehicle Registration Number BAC 59, which is at the centre of the said WhatsApp audio, was initially contracted as part of Chairman Darboe’s Seneya Project. The Seneya Project was initiated in July 2023 to mitigate council's challenges to provide waste collection to households within the West Coast Region.

The objective of the project was well publicised at its public launching in July 2023. It is a public private partnership (ppp) that aims to enabled the BAC to partner with private vehicle owners to collect waste from the households in the region, which council was not doing at the time, due to lack of capacity.

The agreement with private partners or vehicle owners require them to provide their vehicles to council for the collection of household wastes at a price set by council and the profit is shared between them and council. For example it was agreed that for a 50kg bag of waste will be charged at D15, which D10 would go to the vehicle owner and D5 goes to council.

However, for private vehicle owners who cannot manage their vehicles and want the council to manage the same for them, the agreement is 50/50 per profit share, with council taking responsibility for their fueling and maintenance.

The Green Vehicle was initially contracted on a 25/75 share agreement, but the owner struggled with its management which resulted in its grounding.

However, due to council’s shortage of vehicles for the project, the owner was encouraged to go into the 50/50 share agreement with the council, with council taking over its management. In fact, as a result of that agreement, it became the only vehicle that remained in the project.

In the last month, September 2024, all of council's remaining garbage trucks had problems forcing them to be grounded. This left the council
with no compactor truck to collect waste, and was only relying on the Jambarr Sanneh project tractor for waste collection.

Prior to that, in August 2024, council was hiring a Shovel Loader per weekend to help clear waste around the Brikama market and car park. We pay this shovel loader machine D35,000 per day and had to fuel it for each day we used it.

Thus, in September, when we had no vehicle for council service, we requested for the Green Vehicle to be withdrawn from the Seneya project and help with council’s daily collection around the market and car park.

The owner said he had spoken to Talib before and was informed that KMC was hiring vehicles for D35,000 a day, before their Mbalit program, to collect waste, as a result, if his vehicle is to be withdrawn from Seneya to Council service, it would have to be hired by council on a daily basis, at a discounted price of D20,000 per day.

The council's Health and Sanitation team leaders, Nuha Jammeh and Bekai Saidy advised the Chairman that when they use the Green Vehicle, they were able to collect both the market and car park without needing the service of a Shovel Loader, which was costing council
D35,000 per day. The Chairman explained to them that to use the Green Vehicle for Council's errands would cost council D20,000 per day which would be difficult for council to maintain.

However, they prevail on the Chairman to try and convince the council to buy the Green Vehicle instead, as the Council had no vehicle at present or it would keep hiring private trucks and shovel loader, which would cost more.

It is as a result of this recommendations that the Honourable Chairman took the matter to the General council of BAC for their resolution to purchase the same, as a matter of urgency and emergency. The general council agreed to the same and passed a resolution to that effect on 24 September 2024 in support of the council buying the same. The price that was later agreed with the owner was D1,250,000.00 from an initial price of D1.4 million. It is further agreed for this to be paid on instalments to enable council to get the funds.

This is the whole truth about the council's dealings with the Green Vehicle.

Issue of the number plate:
The person behind the Whatsapp audio also alleged that the Hon. Chairman or the Council had used council number plate on the vehicle to aid the owner to avoid paying tax.

It is worth noting that the Council use council number plate on vehicle in our service for identification to police or anyone else on the road that such a vehicle is in the service of the council.

This is the case even with private trucks in our servive, which the council would write on a sticker for them to attach to their vehicle to notify all that that is in the service of council. We have similar sticker on our big skip truck, which currently does not have a number plate.

This is purely done for such purposes and not for any tax issues as alleged by the WhatsApp audio. The vehicle owner’s tax liabilities are also the responsibilities of the owner and not the council. And as far as the council is aware the owner is not owing or avoiding any tax issues with the council.

Therefore that part of the allegation is refuted by BAC. The BAC further wishes to assure the public that under the leadership of Chairman Yankuba Darboe, the BAC remains committed to eradicating corruption at the council and will not engaged in any corrupt practices as alleged by the WhatsApp audio.

The ongoing BAC revenue assessment in Kombo North District has assessed 9,694 properties, from May to July 2024, it revealed that BAC should be receiving D29,246,820.00 from the 9,694 assessed, with 90,000 more left to be assessed!

According to our ongoing data assessment of all revenue sources in the West Coast Region, the region has 60 local markets, out of which BAC is collecting revenue at only 18 markets! It’s amazing what data can reveal!!

The plight of the Voice Newspaper journalists is nothing more than a classic case of abuse of police powers! If it succeeds, it means Journalists would require police approval for stories before they can run them on their papers! Gambia is being caged!