Staff association of The Gambia Ports Authority is reportedly angered by management’s move to increase salary of only the former parastatal’s big dogs. The authority’s junior staff plan to protest if their demands aren’t met, insider sources told forGambia News Monday.
The association is said to be at loggerheads with the management over the move they deem quite unfair. The staff bitterly complained against Managing Director Ousman Jobarteh under whose tuition the national economic stem-cell was handed to the Turkish operators Albayrak.
The Turkish company has since come under public microscope amid the Barrow government’s selling off of other seminal money-makers for the impoverished West African country.
Insiders remonstrated, “Jobarteh is a very dangerous element who’s not interested in the development of the country and the General staff of the GPA. How can you promote and increase the salaries of the management and some senior staff and leave out a bigger section of the junior staff who are the backbone of the GPA?”
Meanwhile, other reports revealed that The Gambia Ferry Services is heavily undergoing serious financial constraints affecting regular commutes between Banjul and Barra. “We’re in a dire condition here financially and it’s affecting our operations and the purchasing of the spare parts,” a senior staff lamented.
Sources furthered that the “ferries are currently operating with two engines which [could] be catastrophic.” Under normal circumstances, each ferry should operate with four engines. “For a ferry to operate on a two-engine basis is [like] between death and a life,” staff added.
The Gambia Ports Authority has since stopped lending a hand to the ferry Services after the government mortgaged it to the Albayrak Group.
A senior staff also told this medium that “plans to protest would go ahead until they agree to our demand and apply the promotions and salary increment across the board.”
We tried reaching out to Barrow’s hand-picked ferries Director, Fabakary Manka to no avail. “Manka is a show boy who knows nothing about ferry operations,” sources told ForGambia.
They added, “Barrow and his wife recommended him because of his affiliation with NPP activities. He never sits in his office only loitering from Statehouse and works Ministry.”
From Editor: GPA Managing Director Mr. Jobarteh has our cell number. He is free to reach out to clear the air. And Mr. Manka, ditto! We tried calling Jobarteh but it looks like his number has changed since it’s been a long time we interviewed him.
This tiny paper doesn’t have anything against any patriotic, honest, and upright civil servant. In fact, we spoke highly of Jobarteh; published and broadcast his technocratic interview he had with us years ago. We asked him the prospects of transferring the Port to Tanji or Sanyang years ago and he professionally stated such venture would cost about D500 billion.
Mr. Jobarteh, wollahi your technical parlance impressed us a great deal during that interview. But Sir, Gambia is dying—Gambians together with her. The country’s location is a rare providence and geostrategic blessing.
Almost, all the greatest empires in the world and their vestiges from Rome to Mesopotamia knew much of Black Africa and its wealth thanks to this River Gambia. Find out why the British Empire with its naval supremacy that inherited Rome at some point fought to colonize our Gambia or kick our other European powers from the coastline you see today as Sanyang, Tanji, or outskirts of Brikama!
