The Republic

25/12/2025

Join us this Saturday as we wrap up 2025 with a deep dive into the fight for transparency in The Gambia. We will be reviewing our year's most impactful investigations and discussing the complementary roles of investigative journalism and civil society in holding the government accountable.

23/12/2025

An audit of the Gambia Public Printing Corporation has exposed a major potential conflict of interest, revealing that managing director Momodou Ceesay is the sole signatory for the bank account of Jessakono Enterprise – a frequent supplier to the state corporation he led.

An audit of the Gambia Public Printing Corporation has exposed a major potential conflict of interest, revealing that managing director Momodou Ceesay is the

15/12/2025

Lawmakers give Committee investigating alleged wrongdoing in the sale of ex-president Jammeh's assets one month to complete its report

On Monday, the lawmakers approved a request for the extension of the investigation into the alleged wrongdoing in the sale and disposal of assets of former President Yahya Jammeh to January 31, 2026. This extension will allow the Committee the necessary time to meticulously finalise its comprehensive report.

This is the second extension handed to the Committee after the expiry of its first 90–day extension. The first approval was for 120 days.

08/12/2025

The training was conducted by GFS Business Development, a business firm established by a group of individuals, from September 16th to 20th. The five–day training cost the Councils a combined sum of D2.4m, with each paying at least D175, 000 to the school for their five participants.

Yearly, various government institutions conduct similar few days' training, without much oversight or involvement of Gambia Public Procurement Authority, to

08/12/2025

The stories showcase outstanding journalism in reporting on agriculture, environment, taxation, business and finance, children’s rights, migrant rights and investigative journalism.

The Republic has won eight categories at the tenth anniversary of the Gambia National Journalism Award with its editor-in-chief Mustapha K Darboe who won four

06/12/2025

National Journalism Awards turns TEN today. Gambian journalists gather to celebrate excellence!

07/11/2025

Hear from our editor-in-chief after he came second at the African Journalist of the Year Award held by African Investigative Journalism Conference in South Africa.

Juka Ceesay Fatou Touray Tukulorr Sey

06/11/2025

Our Editor-in-Chief, Mustapha K Darboe, comes second at the African Investigative Journalism Conference for his biting investigation into Yahya Jammeh’s assets. Join us in congratulating him! 👏🏿👏🏿

30/10/2025

Former acting registrar of companies arrested, charged with contempt of Assembly

For the second time in two days, the National Assembly special select committee investigating alleged wrongdoing in the disposal and management of the assets of the ex-president Yahya Jammeh, arrested and charged a witness with contempt of the National Assembly.

A former acting registrar of companies, Alieu Jallow, was charged on Thursday with contempt of the Assembly after he was found to have tampered with evidence, provided false and misleading testimony, and deleted relevant files from his laptop shortly before submitting to a forensic analysis by the Committee's investigation team.

A forensic analysis on his laptop showed files relevant to the inquiry were accessed, modified, and some deleted.

Jallow faces charges of perjury and contempt of the parliament. Jallow was involved in the sale of the livestock of ex-president Yahya Jammeh and also the recording of inventory of his assets while inquiries into the alleged financial wrongdoing of the former leader were ongoing. He denied any wrongdoing.

On Wednesday, Adama Jagne, a vehicle mechanic at the State-owned Kotu Garage and a sergeant in the Gambia National Army, was charged with a similar crime and arrested.

30/10/2025

Based on a legal opinion from the AG’s Chambers–which redrafted the contracts signed by the media–Sparkling was asked to refund the D2,525,000 within 60 days. It has been a year since, and the money has not been refunded.

The government had two other options to recover the funds; through the bank guarantee provided by Sparkling or through a civil suit. The Republic understands none of the options was taken by the government to recover taxpayers’ money.

A project conceived in June 2023, when budget bilaterals had barely started, was somehow not budgeted for. Through a series of access to information requests

29/10/2025

Soldier and State mechanic charged with contempt of Assembly

By Awa Macalo

Adama Jagne, a vehicle mechanic at the State-owned Kotu Garage and a sergeant in the Gambia National Army, has been charged with contempt of the National Assembly by the special select committee probing alleged wrongdoing into the disposal and management of the assets of the ex-president Yahya Jammeh.

The select committee said the serving soldier has provided misleading information and interfered with witnesses.
During his numerous appearances before the committee, Jagne denied several pieces of evidence put before him, including that he personally sold vehicles of former president Jammeh.

The investigation, however, revealed that he was actively involved in selling the vehicles and had also instructed other witnesses not to disclose relevant facts to the Committee.

“The Committee considers that these actions and the continued conduct of Sergeant Adama Jagne amount to interference with the lawful functions of the National Assembly and constitute Contempt of the Assembly under the Standing Orders and established parliamentary principles,” the Committee said in a statement on Wednesday signed by the chairperson Hon. Abdoulie Ceesay.

Jagne was arrested and handed over to the military police.

24/10/2025

On October 22, The Republic published a story detailing adverse audit findings on the operation of Gach Mining Company Ltd. The company runs a revenue sharing mining operation with the Gambia government where it takes 40% of net profit. At the time of the publication, our reporter did not receive a response from the company. But GACH later brought it to her attention that the email was, in fact, sent and forwarded it to her. While we have adjusted the story with their comments, we are also sharing the entire question and answer here below:

1) Auditors have found that despite the gross cost of metric ton of mineral sand increasing from $125 to $133, the sales price has never remained unchanged since 2017. This increase should affect the government’s 60% share but it has remained the same. Could you please comment on this?

Our sales are based on what is called an offtake contract where we enter into an agreement with a buyer for a fixed quantity of minerals at a fixed price in order to guard against price volatility. During the period in question the gross costs of mining saw an increase connected to fuel prices which led to an increase from around $125 to $133. This negatively impacted Government's revenue but maintained the floor price of $40 contained in the licence. In the subsequent years of 2023 and 2024, we adjusted our operations by cutting production expenditure and that led to a drop in cost and increase in government revenue to an average amount of $45 per ton. The government's 60% share was not therefore unchanged.

2) Also in 2021, your company exported 621 containers, equivalent to 18, 494 metric tons of black sand. Based on your agreement with the government, their share would be $832,253. The bank statement seen by auditors show that you only paid $739, 818, meaning $
92, 435 of royalties remain unpaid. Could you please comment on this?

This was perfectly explained to the auditors but they went ahead to publish their report with the erroneous interpretation. The revenue cannot be calculated by comparing the amount of HMC shipped in a Calendar year with the revenue for that calendar year. Revenue overlaps. For example HMC shipped between September to December may only be paid for between January to March of the next year. The auditors needed to look at explanation notes which accompanied each bank transfer to determine to what payment this transfer corresponded to. Furthermore in some instances they calculated the revenue based on a fixed price of $125 failing to take into consideration the fact that the licence provides that the cost may vary as far as the floor price of $40 is maintained. The only instance in which the company has to notify the department is if any increase in cost is such that the government's share will be below the floor price of $40 and this has never occured.

3) In 2022, 659 containers of 17,687.15 tons of black sand was exported by your company. The $832,253.85 to be paid to the government was delayed for two consecutive years. Could you comment on this?

In this period 4 transfers were made to the CBG account all of which bounced. Several communications were made to the Department of Geology and meetings were held with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, and the accountant General to resolve this issue with the USD denominated bank account the Royalty payments were to be made. During this period we provided constant updates on shipments and Government share of revenue and even made a proposal to pay in Dalasi since the Dalasi is the legal tender and given that there were protracted issues with the USD account. I am not sure if this information was provided to the auditors but when the issue was finally resolved and the go ahead given for us to pay in Dalasi, we paid at the current central bank rate which was higher than when the payments would have been due ensuring that there was no loss to Government.

4) Auditors also found that you have failed to pay the $100,000 to the Geological Department for training and institutional support for three consecutive years (2021, 2022 and 2023). This is a total of $300,000 not paid by you or remain unaccounted for. What do you say to this?

The Licence requires that we make a payment of $100,000 each year into a bank account managed directly by Geology. Due to public finance control regulations, this could not be possible. Instead the department made direct requests to us and we covered the Training and Institutional support expenses directly from an account into which we lodged these funds, with the remainder carried over to the next year. We have never failed to meet a request for T&IS and in fact as we speak have always met 100% of the requests for each year including annual expenses of over $200,000 in certain years based on the carried over balances.

“There is a risk that the proportion of revenue remitted to the government of the Gambia is understated since no control is in place to monitor or confirm