FOROYAA Newspaper (Serrekunda)
Lamin Sanyang
17 June 2011
The criminal trial of the Pristine Consulting Company did not proceed on Thursday 16th June, when the Director of Special Litigation, Daniel O. Kulo, announced his appearance for the State and informed Justice Joseph Ikpala, of the Special Criminal Court at the Banjul High Court that the State is still negotiating with the defendant to settle the case out of court. He applied for a three weeks adjournment for the State and the defendant to reach an amicable decision.
The defence counsel, Mrs. Ida Drammeh, announced her appearance for the accused and told the court she would not object to the application made by the State. Subsequently, the court decided to further adjourn the case till the 6th July, for the two parties to continue discussion before the next adjourned date.
It could be recalled that Pristine Consulting Company (first accused), Mr. Abdourahman Touray (second accused) and Mr. Hassan Touray (third accused) are jointly charged with two counts of “Economic Crimes”, one count of “Conspiracy to Defraud the Public” and one count of “Theft”. The second accused person, Mr. Abdourahman Touray is currently out of the jurisdiction.
The two defendants are accused of committing economic crimes in that they caused the government economic losses by withholding the government share in the sum of D27, 601. 90 after selling ID cards and other official documents.
Count two is also “Economic Crime” in that while they were engaged by the government to procure and supply finger print scanner machines and accessories they intentionally failed to procure and supply as agreed, thereby committed acts detrimental to the economy of The Gambia.
Count three is “Conspiracy to Defraud the Public”, contrary to section 292 0f the Criminal Code in they conspired among themselves to defraud the public by printing and selling to members of the public, ID Cards, and other official documents which contains biometric data in a chip.
Count four is “Theft” in that they received the sum of D27, 601. 90 on behalf of the government of The Gambia, and converted it to their personal use.
At the same time the civil suit in which Pristine Consulting sued the State for the sum of over D45 million and $437,798 also did not proceed on Thursday 16th June, when the counsel for the plaintiff, Mrs. Ida Drammeh, informed Justice Emmanuel Fagbenle, of the Banjul High Court that the plaintiff is discussing with the State to settle the case out of court.
She applied for a three weeks adjournment for the discussion with the State to complete. The Director of Special Litigation, Daniel O. Kulo, appeared for the State and did not raise any objection. Justice Fagbenle then adjourned the case till the July 6th 2011, to allow the parties to settle the matter out of court before the adjournment date.
Readers would recall that Pristine Investment Company Limited (Trading as Pristine Consulting) has filed a civil suit against the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs (1st Defendant) and the Attorney General of The Gambia (2nd Defendant).
The plaintiff is claiming the sum of “US$ 437,798.00, being infrastructural cost agreed to be paid in a contract between them and The Government of The Gambia; the sum of GMD 26,850.897.00, being the contractual deficit based on the minimum sums guaranteed under the contract and the actual documents produced as at the 31 day of March 2010; the sum of GMD 18,865,717.00, being the contractual deficit based on the minimum sums guaranteed under the contract and the actual documents produced as at the 31 day of March 2011 and the Interest rate of 24%( percent) per annum from the date the sums became due under the contract.
AllAfrica – All the Time
Taken from:
Pristine Consulting Cases – Negotiations Still On