The former Finance minister Amadou Sanneh has countered President Adama Barrow’s statement that he was aware of funds paid into the account of the First Lady’s foundation by a Chinese company. 

In 2018, a Chinese company TBEA paid US$ 700,000 (D35 million) into the account of the First Lady’s foundation (FaBB) and were later awarded a government contract. 

The incident raised concerns about corruption by the Barrow government and was publicly denounced by many Gambians including civil society organisations. 

President Barrow in an interview with his political party NPP media clarified that the funds were intended to pay for a Gambian government delegation to China.

Mr Barrow said he authorised the funds from TBEA to be transferred to the FaBB account because it could not be paid into the government consolidated fund. 

He said this financial transaction was done with the knowledge of the then Finance minister Amadou Sanneh. 

However Mr Sanneh has refuted the president’s claim adding that he was “deliberately attempting to mislead people at a time of accountability”. 

“I was responsible for the finances of this country from 2017 to March 2019 and we [the Ministry of Finance] were never involved in this transaction. We had never been given any information nor any documentation as to what the transaction was or where it emanates,” Mr Sanneh said.

“As a Finance minister at the time, I was completely in the dark about this and until the president’s recent revelations, everyone assumed this was a donation to FaBB. 

“But now that the president has come out to state that this is a donation to The Gambia, to finance an official trip, then it is fair to say that the whole transaction has gone against the financial regulations of this country because it should not have gone into FaBB’s account when the Central Bank has reserve accounts outside.

“So why can’t it be paid to the CBG’s reserve accounts? Is the FaBB account better than the Central Bank?”