The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has refused to approve the $37M Banjul Streets, Drainage and Sewage Project that is already underway, according to Sidi Sanneh, a U.S based Gambian political analyst and former government minister.

Mr. Sanneh, who is also a blogger and social activist, alleged in a Facebook post on Friday that “the IMF) has refused to approve the $37M Banjul Streets Project that is already underway under a questionable pre-financing arrangement.

“Reasons for IMF include: the project is unsustainable, inflated cost per km of comparable quality and standards.”

Mr. Sanneh’s statement could not be independently verified as we were unable to reach officials from The Gambia Government and the IMF.

We have contacted the Ministry of Works for comment.

The Banjul Streets, Drainage and Sewage Project has been mired in controversy since it was commissioned.

In May the Mayor of Banjul, Rohey Malick Lowe, publicly accosted the Minister of Works and Local Government, Bai Lamin Jobe, for not disclosing the full details of the Banjul roads reconstruction project to her council.

Mrs Lowe claimed that she had no information as to the terms and conditions of the US$37 million roads project that was being carried out in her municipality.

The Mayor told the Minister that it was wrong for her office not to have been involved in the project and to be kept in the dark. She said despite repeated efforts to engage the works Ministry to provide her with the details of the project, her pleas have gone unanswered.

“I have been inundated with questions from both my councillors and the general public and media as to the nature of the project but I cannot find any answers because I simply don’t know any aspect of the project.

As the BCC, the direct representatives of the people of Banjul, we deserve to know at least the details about the project such as how much money is involved or which streets are to be paved,” said the Mayor.

“I have been knocking on doors about this project; having meetings with the contractor Hadim Gai and the minister himself over this project. But we still don’t even know anything about the project as I have not even seen the project document.”

The Works Minister clarified that the roads project was not a publicly tendered project because the Gambia Government had no money for the project and it was being pre-financed by the contractor Gai Enterprise.

“Once the government conceived the desire to build the roads, the technical papers were prepared and the government then looked for a contractor who will pre-finance the works to the right specifications, observed by an international consultant, and be paid five years later.

Gai Enterprise agreed to pre-finance the works. This is the true story of this project. It is different from the normal projects which go to tender because the employer already has the money,” he said.