By: Fatou Krubally
The Registrar of Companies, Marie Thérèse Gomez, has admitted that several companies linked to former President Yahya Jammeh and his associates remain active on the national register despite government orders for their liquidation.
Testifying before the National Assembly’s Special Select Committee on the Sale and Disposal of Assets Identified by the Janneh Commission on Monday, Mrs. Gomez revealed that none of the affected companies had been dissolved since being handed to the Ministry of Justice for liquidation following the commission’s recommendations.
“The companies still exist in our records. Basically, none of these companies have been dissolved,” she told lawmakers, adding that even the appointment of receivers or liquidators had not been filed in the system.
Mrs. Gomez said the situation partly stems from the incomplete migration of company files from the old manual registry to the electronic “Single Window” system introduced in 2014. “Some companies registered before 2014 were never properly migrated,” she explained, noting that the missing records make it difficult to verify their current status.
She also disclosed that poor storage conditions had worsened the situation. “Our archive was leaking at one time. Some documents were destroyed or mixed up. We are still reorganizing to put our house in order,” she said.
Committee members expressed deep concern, describing the revelations as a “national disaster.” They questioned how the Registrar could monitor compliance with the Companies Act when key corporate records could not be traced.
Lawmakers were particularly alarmed that companies such as KGI, Kanilai Family Farms, Sindola Safari Lodge, Westwood Gambia Ltd, and others identified by the Janneh Commission as holding assets linked to the former regime still appear as active entities.
Mrs. Gomez, who assumed office in July 2024, acknowledged that no steps had been taken to strike these firms off the register, citing a lack of records officers and the collapse of the World Bank–funded Single Window project.
The committee vowed to further investigate why the liquidation process was never completed and how firms connected to the former president continue to exist on paper nearly a decade after the Janneh Commission’s recommendations were adopted by government.
