Internal records show that the state-owned printing company – Gambia Printing and Publishing Corporation – is on its knees. Amid salary delays and allegations of mismanagement, poor procurement choices have exacerbated the corporation’s financial woes, with the GPPC losing at least D10 million in advance payments for goods that were never supplied.
As the proverbial chicken coming home to roost, the corporation shoulders D44 million in tax arrears and D12 million in social security contributions, while a number of its printing machines are reported to be faulty beyond repair.
As the majority owner of Orzec ICT Solutions, a company known to have been doing business with the GPPC, and with links to the GPPC’s major procurer Jessakono Enterprise, the GPPC’s embattled managing director stands accused of turning the state enterprise into a profit machine for himself and close relatives.
DONATE via Paypal or Wave to SUPPORT our INVESTIGATIONS.
By Josef Skrdlik and Ousman Saidykhan
Editing and fact-checking by Talibeh Hydara
On January 24, 2025, the managing director of the Gambia Printing and Publishing Corporation, Momodou Ceesay, was sent on administrative leave by the State-Owned Enterprise Commission amid allegations of corruption made against him by the board chair Dr Alieu Faal. Faal is not the only one to make such allegations. At least four GPPC employees, three of whom hold key positions at the corporation, have complained of rot at the corporation’s helm to The Republic since July 2024. They mentioned “critical management lapses” causing salary delays, tax arrears and poor fiscal performance.
In every chat, one thing kept coming up: Jessakono, a business named after an ancestral compound that nominates imams in the North Bank Region village of Kerewan, the native village of Momodou Ceesay. Momodou is a descendant of this lineage, as is his “brother” Habib Ceesay, the official owner of Jessakono Enterprise. Jessakono was registered in May 2014, according to the company registration department of the Ministry of Justice – less than two years after Momodou became the GPPC’s managing director in October 2012.
At least 17 receipts issued in 2023 and 2024 – reviewed by The Republic – indicate that Jessakono supplied the GPPC with a wide range of materials, from laptops and air conditioners to printers and toners. Since 2021, the GPPC has conducted transactions with Jessakono worth at least D2.4 million, according to the GPPC’s accounts, though it is unclear whether this represents the full amount.
On February 10, the GPPC board – through the acting managing director Wurah Bah – wrote to the Auditor General, requesting a special probe into allegations against Momodou. The letter said that Jessakono was prioritised over other suppliers in violation of procurement rules. Without access to the institution’s entire records, we are unable to determine if alternative market prices were sought in procurement awarded to Jessakono.
Jessakono, located on the first floor of a two-storey building on Kairaba Avenue two blocks from Traffic Lights, is hidden from public view. As of February 24, the shelves of the store were empty. A member of staff found by a visiting journalist from The Republic claimed they only use the office for paperwork but have a store at Jeshwang – a claim denied by multiple GPPC employees, including those who directly deal with Jessakono. “I am only aware of their operations from Kairaba Avenue,” said one of the employees familiar with Jessakono’s operation.
In a 2022 interview with The Standard newspaper, Momodou denied owning a business that supplies the GPPC. “This is the biggest joke of the century. Ask them to tell you where my shop is, yes, I know I have friends who own shops and occasionally we do buy our materials but even that decision is not influenced by me,” he said. Yet, Habib admitted that Momodou, whom he said comes from the same compound, helps him look after Jessakono, though he insisted that Momodou is not the reason why Jessakono supplied the GPPC with goods. “I’m a businessman, so I supply many institutions, not only the GPPC,” he said.
DONATE via Paypal or Wave to SUPPORT our INVESTIGATIONS.
But was Momodou in fact totally honest about his business ownership? Jessakono is housed in an office space rented by a business in which Momodou is the majority shareholder. A faded board on the building still advertises the place as Orzec ICT Solutions. Orzec ICT Solutions Company Limited was registered in February 2014, four months earlier than Jessakono. Habib, though acknowledging he is using Orzec’s office, denied any association with Orzec or knowledge of who the owner is.
Sources informed The Republic that Orzec was doing business with the GPPC until 2021. The Republic made an Access to Information request to the GPPC seeking records of all transactions between the corporation and both Orzec and Jessakono but had not received a reply by the time of publication. Orzec was a registered GPPA supplier for 2019 and 2020, a requirement for businesses that wish to participate in government procurement. In 2017, an external audit of the GPPC flagged Orzec among a list of businesses that supplied the corporation without a delivery note – a document confirming the product’s delivery and the quantity supplied.
Goods that were never supplied
In April 2016, the GPPC signed a D5,875,735 contract with UK-based Procurevis International Ltd, owned by British-Gambian businessman Sedar Pascal Davis, for the supply of printing materials. It agreed to pay 75% of the sum upfront and 25% upon receiving the goods. The records seen by The Republic show that the contract was delayed because the GPPC board insisted that Procurevis provide security against the advance payment. After negotiations, Davis agreed to provide his property in Banjul as collateral and in August 2017, the GPPC paid Procurevis D4,406,801.
However, Procurevis did not dispatch the items as agreed, only to later claim that the order could not be fulfilled because the prices had increased by 2%. In March 2018, the GPPC agreed to the 2% markup requested by Procurevis. As of March 2025, the GPPC has received neither the refund nor the ordered materials. Davis, whom The Republic briefly reached by phone, declined to provide any details concerning the transaction, adding that the information The Republic had was inaccurate.
According to sources from the Ministry of Justice, the GPPC’s contract with Procurevis was not sent to the ministry for legal advice, contrary to usual practice. It contains a clause mandating parties to resolve their conflict through arbitration in a country to be determined by the parties, which the ministry considers legally challenging. “Usually, we avoid this kind of clause, especially in procurements not substantial like this,” said a source who does not want to be named. “The title deed [the Banjul property provided as guarantee by Davis] is useless if you cannot get through the arbitration,” the source added.
Despite the Procurevis debacle, the GPPC went on to sign another risky contract with a Turkish company, Graf Dekorasyon İnşaat ve Yer Döşemeleri Dış Ticaret Limited, in August 2019. The contract concerned the supply of 200 metric tonnes of white paper rolls for D11,463,840.
Though the Gambia Public Procurement Authority approved this procurement, the documents seen by The Republic show that the advance payment to Graf was to be conditioned on Graf providing a bank guarantee. The GPPC ignored the advice and paid the company D5,731,920 in September 2019, 50% of the contract’s total value, after Graf provided insurance worth D456,000, just 8% of the advance payment.
The payment was made in dalasi to Penta International Trading Ltd, a local Gambian company with which the GPPC has no official relationship, following authorisation from Graf to initiate the transaction. A GPPC staff member familiar with the transaction claimed the GPPC’s bank at the time, Eco Bank, did not have the dollars to pay the Ankara-based company. As of March 2025, the GPPC has received no word from Graf or Penta.
The GPPC board said the payments to Procurevis and Graf breached the security guarantees demanded by the Gambia Public Procurement Authority. One senior official familiar with the GPPC’s procurement told The Republic that Momodou authorised the payment to the Turkish company despite objections raised by his procurement officer, Lamin Bojang.
Poor performance brings corporation to its knees
To help improve its financial position, the Office of the President granted exclusive rights to the GPPC in 2018 for the printing of government revenue books. Yet, like most of Gambia’s state-owned enterprises, the GPPC has not been paying dividends to the government because of its poor financial performance. The GPPC board indicated the company is in a state of dysfunction.
The internal records obtained by The Republic show the GPPC owes the Gambia Revenue Authority D44 million in unpaid VAT, corporate taxes and income taxes. It also owes D12 million in social security contributions to the Social Security and Housing Finance Corporation, according to the GPPC board. A letter seen by The Republic also indicates an unpaid phone bill with Gamcel totalling D1,402,531.
According to GPPC staff interviewed by The Republic on condition of anonymity, the poor financial performance is a product of poor service delivery. Most of the machines in the press room are reported to be faulty beyond repair. These include the Bielomatik exercise book printing machine, which was purchased and installed in 2019 for a total cost of D50 million, expected to generate revenues of up to D700 million, but has never been in operation.
In an apparent attempt to improve the state of the press room, the GPPC reportedly took out loans to purchase new printing and binding machines but has not realised the purchases while still servicing the loans. This situation seems to have forced the institution to outsource some of its work. For example, in April 2024, the GPPC signed a contract with the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education to print secondary school textbooks for D58.9 million.
However, instead of printing the textbooks at its own facility, the GPPC gave part of the contract, amounting to D30 million, to the Ahmadiyya Printing Press, without board clearance.
The GPPC board noted that the subcontract made little economic sense, as the realised profit margin was only 26%, well below the GPPC’s standard of 55%, while the corporation still had to pay salaries to its production workers.
Hires ‘without’ due process
Several GPPC employees alleged that Momodou hired up to 24 individuals, close and distant relatives. Though the numbers were not established by the GPPC board, the letter said Momodou hired relatives without following due process.
Some staff members told The Republic that there are at least two natives of Kerewan in each department of the corporation. They alleged that there were instances where Ceesay hired relatives and immediately promoted them as supervisors.
“We call this place Kerewan Kunda,” said one of the interviewed employees.
Promotion, another staff member said, largely depended on one’s loyalty to the boss, adding that Ceesay took the GPPC to be his family compound. “I’m a victim. Two times I was denied promotion for his relative simply because I was perceived to be unloyal to him,” he said.
In addition, the GPPC board said that in October 2024, the corporation employed a “technical expert” under a fictitious name and provided him with payments totalling D200,000 and a company car.
“We will provide you with a copy of his CV making the managing director as his personal reference, another clear case of conflicted interest,” said the letter, requesting a special audit. The Republic has learned that despite the claims by the government of an ongoing special audit, the Auditor General’s office is only doing their legally required yearly audit at the GPPC, looking into 2021 and 2022.
The Republic sent Momodou a detailed list of questions covering all allegations against him, but he declined to comment. “I guess you are aware that there is an ongoing investigation about these allegations. Therefore, I reserved any comment until the audit findings are out,” he said in an email response on March 2.
Our publication does not depend on any advertisement revenue. We rely on donations from readers like you. DONATE via Paypal or Wave to SUPPORT our INVESTIGATIONS.
