A Foreign-owned Fishmeal Factory Causes a Stink in Senegal

Standing beside the empty guest house she manages, Abie Sanyang looks with worry across the beach. The source of her concern is less than 100m away on the foreshore; a fishmeal factory – its silos looming over a concrete wall separating it from cheerfully decorated palm-thatched beach bars and settlements. The fishing village Abene, in the rural Casamance region of southern Senegal, has long been a popular tourist destination. But when the plant, Société des Produits Halieutiques (SPH SARL), began operating in April 2018, the noxious fumes created in the process of turning pelagic fish into powder and oil drove visitors away. “Our guests were struggling to breath...

November 30, 2021Investigations, The Big Story
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Health Ministry’s $3.9m Deal: Who Got A Cut For Medical ‘Things Bought For Dying Individuals’

The Gambia’s ministry of health last year struck a $3.9m deal with a Turkey-based company for the purchase of medical items and equipment. Ten ambulances are included in the procurement, each reportedly bought for $89,750, approx. D5m at the time. · Malagen confirms from multiple sources that such ambulances cost at average price of $60,000 and from the deal, the ministry could have saved at least D90m of taxpayer funds, which could build at least 10 standard health posts and 40 community boreholes. · ...

August 27, 2021Investigations, The Big Story
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The Gambia’s Water Paradox: How A Country With Plentiful Water Resources Is Failing To Provide Safe Water To Its People

Bintou Kijera was exhausted. Neither she nor her three-year-old daughter had slept the previous night: the little girl was simply too sick. The two were at The Gambia’s second biggest hospital, Serekunda General Hospital, where the toddler had been diagnosed with diarrhoea. “I have changed her diapers more than four times,” the young woman said, pointing at the pale and malnourished looking girl mounted on her back. Neither Kijera nor the nurse who diagnosed the condition of her daughter could say for certain what caused her diarrhoea. “I don’t actually know whether it is caused by the food she ate or the water she...

July 24, 2021Investigations, The Big Story
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Inside Malagasy ‘Miracle Covid Cure’ Donation that Costs Gambia D2.2M.

The Gambia government authorities claim to have paid more than D2.2 million to transport only three boxes of the Malagasy Covid-19 herbal medicine from Guinea Bissau - less than an hour away by flight from Banjul. Our Investigation reveals that the instructions came from the State House, and the authorities appeared to have sidelined key oversight institutions while disregarding the laws and regulations on public spending, especially on matters dealing with Covid-19 expenditures. One year on, the ‘miracle cure’ for Covid-19 continues to gather dust in the medical stores, and questions are now being raised about possible fraud. “I don’t believe...

June 11, 2021Investigations, The Big Story
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This one I’ll share with my minister’: Fresh bribery scandal hits Fisheries Ministry

After two months of investigations, Malagen has gained access to secretly recorded tapes and official correspondences. The medium has also conducted interviews with deep-throat informants and confronted key players at the Ministry of Fisheries, including minister James Gomez and permanent secretary Dr Bamba Banja both of whom are named in a bribery scandal. In briefs Money has many times changed hands between Golden Lead, a scandal-ridden Chinese owned fish meal company and top officials of the Ministry of Fisheries and Water Resources, a former staff turned informant told Malagen. One such alleged encounter was captured in an audio clip where a voice, purportedly...

October 20, 2020Investigations, The Big Story
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Gov’t, GACH And Mining For Minerals: Where Are The $ Millions

In 2017, few months after assuming office, Adama Barrow-led government launched an inquiry into the ‘corrupt practices’ of exiled former president, Yahya Jammeh. The mining sector was a big part of that investigation. But even before the inquiry was wrapped up, the government awarded licence for resumption of mining and sold off the assets put on freeze. In 2018, when President Barrow faced questions about the awarding of mining licence, he claimed that he forgot the name of the company that was awarded the license. It turns out that company is GACH Mining, a limited liability entity whose de...

June 13, 2020Investigations, The Big Story
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How GNPC under Mambury Njie spent nearly D19m for a Banjul property in a deal ‘susceptible to favour

n the name of land banking, the GNPC under Mr Mambury Njie splashed nearly D19m of public funds to purchase a property that is now valued a little more than half the price it was bought for. But who benefitted from this highly questionable deal? Our news editor Mustapha K Darboe reveals the details...

May 7, 2020Investigations, The Big Story
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