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| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| toubab1020 |
Posted - 19 Jan 2020 : 14:27:26
By Lamin Njie January 17, 2020
Seven people who work at the Food Safety and Quality Authority have been sacked for taking part in Wednesday’s press conference.
FSQA is currently trapped in a bitter row involving staff and director general Zainab Jallow.
Zainab Jallow is fighting to clear her name amid allegations of abuse of office, with FSQA staff last year writing to the Vice President Dr Isatou Touray informing her that Jallow was abusing her office. They accused her of bad leadership, corruption and sacking staff illegally.
The row between the FSQA chief and her staff deepened on Wednesday when the latter held a press conference saying their petition action against Jallow had been ‘frustrated’ – while calling for it to be implemented.
Zainab Jallow reacted to the press conference branding it ‘illegal’ and saying those who took part in it had been dismissed.
“Everybody who was involved in telling these lies in that illegal press conference… They’re not the head of institution [but] they held an illegal press conference in government office without authorization. Therefore, the decision has been taken to dismiss them…from the office of the vice President,” Zainab Jallow told The Fatu Network.
The Fatu Network has gathered seven staff have today been handed termination letters. The letters were reportedly signed by the authority’s director general Zainab Jallow.
https://fatunetwork.net/breaking-seven-fsqa-staff-who-took-part-in-illegal-press-conference-sacked-in-brutal-style/ |
| 4 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| toubab1020 |
Posted - 22 Jan 2020 : 12:02:09
Monday, January 20, 2020
At least seven staffs of the Food Safety and Quality Authority (FSQA) were Friday fired by the director general Zainab Jallow for filing a petition against her.
This decision came following last week Wednesday’s press conference organised by the staffs who were demanding better working conditions.
Recall: Last year, a greater percentage of the authority’s staff filed a petitioned to their board against Zainab but the board through their independent panel said they have limited powers over DG Zainab Jallow.
Staff members requested the findings made by the independent panel, but it proved futile prior to the staged press conference on Wednesday.
Last week, a letter signed by Bai Dadou Jallow, director of Scientific Affairs of FSQA, indicated that 22 staffs have been sent on administrative leave without pay.
The Food Safety and Quality Authority of The Gambia was established by Food and Safety Act 2011. It is the sole authority with powers to control food and feed in the country.
In the staffs’ petition letter, they mentioned that “Anyone who stands for truth is either sacked or frustrated to resign.”
DG Zainab is travelling to the USA today (Monday) along with Bai Dodou Jallow and Mary Johnson.
It would be also recalled that on September 20, 2019 one of the Food Safety staff Abdul Hakim Jawara who resigned from the Authority was arrested by the Kotu police.
Author: Arfang M.S. Camara
http://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/article/food-safety-7-staffs-sacked-for-petitioning-dg-jallow |
| toubab1020 |
Posted - 22 Jan 2020 : 11:55:54
By Ndey Sowe January 19, 2020
Seven staffs of the Gambia Food Safety and Quality Authority, who were accused by their superiors of spreading false information both nationally and international, (FSQA) have on Sunday confirmed to Foroyaa that they have been dismissed from their place of work.
The former staff of the Authority, who walked into the Foroyaa office on Sunday, produced a letter written to them by the management.
The letter said: “It is the view of management that your attitude and behaviour within the office and outside, and your open disrespect for senior management and the Authority’s Rules and Regulations, Clause 6.1.1 (9) of the General Orders (GO) Code of Conduct, and spreading false information that has spread nationally and internationally and brought disrepute to the Authority makes your continued retention untenable and not conducive to restoring a professional and harmonious environment at the Authority.”
According to the letter, further to their involvement in the writing and dissemination of a petition against the Authority’s Director General, on 7th October 2019, the Board of Directors of the aforesaid body acting on powers of the Authority’s service rules, clause 718 set up an independent investigation which found the malicious allegations contained in the petition to be false.
“The management acting on the instructions of the Vice President (line Ministry), following several consultative correspondences between the Ministry and the Board of Directors to take necessary administrative steps to address the situation, has hereby taken the decision to dismiss you from your position with immediate effect in line with clause 0303 (I) of the FSQA Service Rules, which provides thus, ‘the authority reserves the right to dismiss any employee for serious misconduct undermining the confidence of your employer’ and /or the image of your employer’.”
The dismissal letter added that the further dissemination of what the Authority called the dissemination of false information on the internet and their participation in an ‘illegal’ press conference without permission of the management held at the FSQA premises on the 15th January 2020, is contrary to clause 0703 of the Food Safety and Quality Service Rules. It added that the employees were in violation of section 0708, on internal correspondences, of the Authority’s Service Rules.
Ali Taal a food inspector said the action of the authorities constitute a violation of their rights.
He told Foroyaa: “ We can confirm that eight of us were issued dismissal letters. The rest were called and told they have letters to collect at the office. But we do not know what the letters contained. Our salaries should not be stopped because we did not commit any offence for the DG to punish us.”
Mustapha Darboe also a food inspector said they only saw the investigative report after they were dismissed by the management.
He said: “We believe that justice has not been served in this case. We are saying that we are illegally dismissed by an unauthorized person. We are ready to go as far as any length to make sure that the ‘biases’ are cleaned and the systems are put in place for us to work”
https://foroyaa.gm/seven-staffs-of-fsqa-dismissed-by-management/ |
| toubab1020 |
Posted - 19 Jan 2020 : 21:00:18
By Fatou Dahaba (Aja)
By
Madi M.K. Ceesay
January 17, 2020
Some staff of Food Safety and Quality Authority has filed a petition against their Director General Zainab Jallow on bad leadership and mismanagement of funds.
These were revealed during a press conference recently at their office in Kotu.
Staff said the petition arise as a result of the abuse of office by the Director General of the FSQA of the Gambia. They clarify that their petition was not to ask for any salary increments, promotions and, or any benefits. As staff of the FSQA, they are concerned about the bad leadership of the current DG and thus wish to bring forward the constant difficulties they face working under extreme toxic work environment.
On the 10th January 2020, an internal memo dated 9th January 2020 from the Director General of Food Safety and Quality Authority Zainab Jallow and signed by the Director of Scientific affairs Mr. Bai Dodou Jallow; was issued to some of the petitioners (22 members), who signed the petition against the DG on the 7th October, 2019.
“To their dismay, the memo has informed the recipients to go on ‘administrative leave without pay with immediate effect while the outcome of the investigation is still pending” Alagie Sowe a food inspector revealed.
He added ‘we consider this decision by the DG as outrageous, unacceptable, and unfair. The letter made reference to the Service Rule which in fact, is in draft form and is not made available to staff’.
According to him, this is not the first petition file against DG as a matter of fact the first petition was filed against her in 2018. He said even a simple complaint against her bad leadership and mismanagement means you are a “bad employee”, hence you are sidelined, outcast, frustrated and force to resign or she waits for you to commit an error to be fired.
Maa Gomez a Food Inspector said FSQA is run like a family business. The director only appoints her own people to key positions so that she would have the chance to continue mismanaging the institution. Promotions are based on personal relationships and affiliation rather than productivity, efficiency and education.
“Anyone who has a different opinion to her managerial tactics on the basis of professional lines is either sacked or frustrated into resignation. The DG’s family has priority over office property more than FSQA officers/activities. Sometimes the food control officers would have to suspend food inspection activities because the DG’s Family would take FSQA vehicle away even though she has an official car”.
Miss Gomez said sometime last year, the focal person for partnership for Aflatoxin Control for Africa (PACA) who was house at the FSQA complex was removed from the FSQA office complex. PACA was introduced to control measures to tackle the aflatoxin problem in the Gambia as aflatoxins represent the biggest cause of post-harvest loses in Gambian groundnuts and a big contributor to health hazards like liver cancers.
Saidina Alieu Jarju Admin/HR of FSQA said since filing of the petition, the board of directors did the first preliminary investigations by interviewing them one-by-one. From there they were told by the board to remain calm and continue with their work, and they promised to set up an independent investigation team which was done as promised. The panelist consist of; DPS PMO, DPS OVP, Rep. from Ombudsman and a Rep. from Labour Department.
Jarju said the investigation took about three week since November 2019. However, the outcomes of these investigations were never made known to the petitioners up to date. ‘Efforts were made for the Board to make known to us the outcome of the investigations as promised. Surprisingly, last week, we were served with a notice to go on administrative leave 22 of the staff’.
He added “no office space allocated to staff posted at the regions. No computers for inspectors to write their reports at the end of every week/month. Apparently there are no computers in the Food Control Directorate and for the past four months no reports are written for activities carried out. Although she claims that there are no funds, but there were funds to purchase and install CCTV cameras in the office to monitor staff”.
Jarju outlined that the Seaport Unit generates around D1.8 million every quarter from the inspection fees collected. Yet no office is allocated to them and the officers lack computers to write reports.
http://dailynewsgm.com/22-fsqa-staff-forced-on-leave-after-petitioning-dg/ |
| toubab1020 |
Posted - 19 Jan 2020 : 20:54:08
By Olimatou Coker & Aisha Tamba
Some 32 staff of the Food Safety and Quality Authority (FSQA) yesterday called a press conference to read out a long list of accusations against their Director General, Zainab Jallow.
The allegations include nepotism, abuse of office and corruption.
Alhagie Sowe, a food inspector said: “Our reason of calling this press conference is to get our voice loud and clear about issues we have petitioned the DG about and which are still not addressed. We believe that with this press conference our voice will be heard by the general public and concern stakeholders and that the situation at hand will be handled and solved immediately”.
Sowe added that the petition was raised against abuse of office by the director general of FSQA. “First of all, we would like to clarify that our petition was not to ask for any salary increments, promotions or any other benefits. As staff of the FSQA, we are concerned about the bad leadership of the current director general and to highlight the constant difficulties we face working under an extreme toxic work environment,” he said.
“As a matter of fact, this is not the first petition against her. The first one was in 2018. The DG always takes a simple complaint against her leadership and mismanagement with such an attitude that she would brand anyone who dares do that as a bad employee, who is sidelined, outcast, frustrated or forced to resign or in some cases fired for some error,” Sowe alleged.
He further alleged that the Authority hardly conducts staff meetings because the director general never accepts exchange of ideas or suggestions from others.
He also alleged a lack of commitment on the part of the director general who would claim lack of funds but will travel frequently, even when some trips are meant for junior staff.
“In some cases she travels nothing less than twice a month. The FSQA is run like a family business. The director only appoints her own people to key positions so that she would have the chance to continue mismanaging the institution,” Sowe alleged.
Other members of the staff including the human resource officer Saidina Alieu Jarjou made further allegations.
The Standard contacted DG Jallow who reacted: “These allegations have been circulating for some time now and an independent panel investigated the allegations and the panel established that all the allegations contained in the petition are false, and as such, an action will be taken against all the people who are behind it.”
Asked what type of punishments the petitioners are likely to face, she said that would be determined by the General Orders of the Civil Service.
She said the press conference in itself is illegal because junior civil servants cannot hold a press conference of such without the consent of the relevant authorities.
https://standard.gm/food-safety-staff-petition-dg-for-nepotism-corruption/ |
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