By Adama Makasuba
Association of Heavy Fuel Transporters has called on the government to help empower Gambia National Petroleum Company (GNPC), as they raised fear of losing their jobs.
They accused some Gambian-owned and foreign-based companies of being on the verge of ‘dubious’ fighting on Gambia National Petroleum Company and their association, which might lead to persist joblessness.
The group officials said they were left jobless for four years due to what they called ‘dubious’ activities of some Gambian-owned and foreign-based fuel distributing companies, as some of the association’s members went bankrupt , sold their truck-tanks, leaving other members unable to settle their taxes with the Gambia Revenue Authority.
Speaking to The Voice in an exclusive interview, Waka Mass Mbai, the association’s secretary, said: “We just sat a moment and they kicked us out of our job and gave it to the Turkish and Lebanese companies in the country to do the job.
“Since they kicked us out, our garage and jobs collapsed, and our mechanics and drivers had gone to seek jobs in other places. And some of our colleagues had sold their truck-tanks. We cannot pay our taxes to Gambian Revenue Authority (GRA) because for four to five years without job, you wouldn’t be able to.”
Now that GNPC has engaged them and started job “the problem we face now is that some players are trying so hard to fight GNPC to remove them from distribution of fuel and if that happens, we will all go jobless again,” Mr Mbai said.
“I don’t want to name any company but our fear is that, if those companies happened to lay hand on these contracts, that’s our end, we will never have jobs in their hands (from them),” he said sadly.
He however called on the government to give more support to the Gambia National Petroleum Company, “we want government to support the GNPC because it is a national company. The company is for every Gambian, is ours and it should be supported at all cost for us to benefit.”