Inside Rosewood Smuggling: Senegal and Gambia potentially robbed of over D300m in 'blood timber' export

Pateh Jah, then-permanent secretary, Ministry of Environment, told Malagen that the decision to greenlight the export was made out of security concerns. 

“The owners were threatening the government with all sorts of violence,” he said. 

“The timber owners themselves suggested to the government to allow them to export their timber and they would pay a penalty, which was accepted by the government as a compromise because of the threats to national security.”

However, Mr Jah’s ministry presented a different narrative in a separate context. In 2022, when the Office of the President sought an explanation for the decision, the ministry made no mention of security threats. Rather, it justified the export as a means to ‘maximise revenue for the government.’

The varying justifications are but one facet of the mystery. Malagen investigation unveils a shadowy world of collusion and deceit in the export of the confiscated timber, robbing the government of revenue calculated to be nearly D300m. The possible deceptive activities include disguising timber shipments as cashews, manipulation of exchange rates, and understating container counts.

Government revenue collection is governed by the Public Finance Act, which prohibits the hiring of private individuals to collect revenue on behalf of the government. But for years, state auditors have raised concerns that the law is often disregarded or circumvented at risks of personal gain. 

When rosewood trade was at its peak in the country, then-president Yahya Jammeh monopolised the export business by appointing Westwood, a company in which he had partial ownership, as the export coordinator. Every dealer had to export their timber through Westwood for a fee of $3000 per 20-foot container. The company had amassed $45.3m in three years of operations without ever paying tax, according to Janneh Commission findings. 

The exiled former ruler and Westwood might be gone. But not the ways that enriched him at the expense of the state. For instance, with Westwood ou, the ministry of environment hired two new export coordinators, giving them exclusive rights over the export of the seized timber. They are Jagne Narr Procurement and Agency Services, a business owned by Muhammad Jagne and H.B Sissoko General Trading, Clearing and Forwarding, owned by Hagie Baniko, a financier of the president, Adama Barrow. 

Per the contract, these agents were assigned with coordinating the exports, and collecting a $4500 penalty from the dealers for every 20-foot container to be shipped out. The money was shared: $900 for the agents and $3600 for the government.

This arrangement is not without issues. 

Malagen has learnt that the state auditors had raised concerns about the appointment of export coordinators, pointing out that the legitimate authority to collect government revenue is the office of the Accountant General. 

Even where private individuals are to be tasked with collecting revenue on behalf of the government, the approval of the ministry of finance is required, the auditors said. 

Official documents seen by Malagen indicate that the ministry of environment had sought approval from the ministry of finance two months after the contract was signed, and when export coordinators were well into the business.

The regulation established by the ministry of environment to guide the export of the seized rosewood mandated the export coordinators to submit records of their transactions to the ministry. 

However, in what appeared to be a coordinated effort to keep the data away from the public, the export coordinators, senior officials at the ministry, and even the dealers have maintained strict secrecy around the records of the quantity of timber seized and the export transactions. 

“I don't have the records,” said Pateh Jah, then-permanent secretary at the Ministry of Environment.  

When contacted, the Minister for Environment, Rohey John-Manjang, said she was not at the office at the time, and did not have the data. 

“It will be more ideal to engage the Ports Authority,” she said even though the export coordinators were not only required to supply records every fortnight, but also the four other institutions, including a representative from the ministry of environment, were taking records of containers leaving the Farato Farm.    

While Hagie Baniko Sissoho, one of the export coordinators has declined to comment and warned against any mention of his name in the story, Muhammed Jagne of Jagne Narr has directed us to his administrator Lamin Saidykhan, a man who has gained notoriety in the illicit timber trade. 

“I changed my laptop a few times since my employment contract on that assignment,” Saidykhan told Malagen, noting that he does not have any record.

Mr Baba Kanyi, one of the dealers who was involved in the export, is not as secretive. “They [the ministry] initially allowed us to export only 2000 containers, but we ended up exporting 2700 containers,” he told Malagen. 

“We each pay $50 to the timber association for each container exported. They should have accurate records of all containers that were exported.”

The timber association, like the ministry and export coordinators, were not cooperative. 

But in a letter seen by Malagen, the Ministry of Environment had in 2022 told the Office of the President that only 300 containers of timber were exported in 2019. 

Two years earlier, in a 2020 audit report, the same ministry told state auditors that 1177 containers were exported, noting that ‘export coordinators are still collecting revenue for the remaining containers. It did not state how many were remaining. 

In another audit done in 2021, the ministry told auditors the same figure of 1177 containers were exported. This time, there was no mention of the remaining containers. 

There is a fourth official figure. 

Multiple sources who are directly involved in the transaction told Malagen that 2393 containers were exported in 2019. This figure is consistent with data available at the ports. 

However, available evidence overwhelmingly points to much higher container count. 

While records of timber export in The Gambia are inconsistent, and changes depending on who you talk to, the alternative sources of data provide perspective into the issue. 

For example, CITES, a UN multilateral body that protects endangered plants and animals from threats of international trade provides what many experts believe to be a comprehensive and up-to-date record of international trade in wildlife. 

The CITES records show that The Gambia had exported 74,572 tons of rosewood to China in 2019. This is estimated to be 3107 containers, the third highest timber export to China in that year.

It appears that behind the veil of secrecy cast over the records, and the discrepancies in the data, that there may be a scheme designed to rob the governments of Senegal and The Gambia of from the sale of illicit timber. 

“With regard to the varying figures you are getting from different authorities, it should be clear that two types of timber are usually exported from the Gambia: timber logs and the semi-finished timber,” Pateh Jah, then-permanent secretary ministry of environment explained. 

He said the $3600 penalty applied to timber logs while a royalty fee was charged for the export of semi-processed timber. 

“Depending on who you talk to, the timber export figures will be different,” he added. “Always, the figures from GPA will be higher, given that they will give you the sum total of the two types of timber, plus even smuggled timber exported.”  

Pateh’s claims regarding the ports recording higher figures may not be entirely accurate. The port's data shows that out of 2393 containers exported, 1220 contained ‘processed timber’ and 1173 were filled with logs, compared to 1177 containers of logs reported by the Ministry of Environment. 

Malagen has uncovered evidence that suggests that the data at both the ports and Ministry of Environment has not only been manipulated, but also vastly understated the container count, potentially diverting the penalty paid on the export. 

In fact, timber exporters, in collusion with officials at the Ministry of Environment, police and ports are in the habit of doctoring records of timber exports or disguising timber logs as products such as cashew nuts, according to a 2019 state investigation on illicit timber export. 

“Bribery is the most common form of corruption in the timber trade,” the report says, noting that ‘illegal processing and export, wrong declaration at customs, and avoidance of taxes’ are common practices. 

Multiple sources who are familiar with the transaction, including officials of the Ministry of Environment, timber dealers, told Malagen that contrary to Ports and Ministry of Environment’s records, all the timber exports were logs on which the $3600 penalty applied. 

“Only squared logs were being exported from the Farato Farms. Not processed wood,” a source at the Ministry of Environment said. 

Baba Kanyi, one of the key dealers of the seized timber, made a similar comment. “We were only sizing round logs into square logs. No processed timber was being exported by us,” he said.  

The regulation issued by the ministry of environment with respect to the export of the confiscated timber has stated in no uncertain terms that ‘permit holders are only allowed to load canted logs’.... and no loading of containers outside except in Farato Farms.’ 

Moreover, the CITES data obtained by Malagen did not mention any export of processed rosewood timber to China. Out of the total of 74,572 tons of rosewood exported, 63,956 were logs and over 10,000 are sawn wood., representing an estimated total of 3107 containers. 

The 1177 container exports reported by the Ministry of Environment generated a total revenue of $4, 237,200, and was converted to dalasi. A total of D199,287,576 was confirmed to have been deposited into the government’s account at the Central Bank.

However, the state revenue could have been significantly higher if the number of container exports officially reported reflected what appeared to be the true volume of rosewood exported to China. 

Malagen estimates that going by the 2393 container exports reported by multiple sources, including the ports, the government should have made at least D426.1 million while per the CITES records, the potential revenue could have been even higher - D553.3 million. 

The concerns surrounding the revenue loss from the timber export extend beyond understating of the container count. It appears that the government may have been short-changed during the currency conversion process. 

The officials claimed to have used D46.82 as a conversion rate with respect to the $4.2m revenue generated from the penalty fee. 

However, when 1177 being the total number of containers they claimed to have exported is multiplied by the D46.82 exchange rate, the result is D198,385,704, which is slightly different from the D199.2m deposited.

When confronted with this finding, Pateh said that the D199.2m deposited included D25,000 as payment for licences by 19 dealers and a D500,000 fine. He would not say who was fined and for what crime. But these additions totalling D975, 000 is more than the D901,872 discrepancy. 

But that’s just a small matter. 

The claimed D46.82 conversation rate used by the export coordinators, in collusion with the officials at the ministry of environment, did not exist in the market at the time. 

Malagen has confirmed from the Central Bank that the lowest conversion rate for dollars from January to May of 2019 when the transitions were made, was D49.47 to a dollar, which would have earned a revenue of D209,614,284 for 1177 containers. 

“Some of the surprises you had when you heard the exchange rate was the same thing I heard. I was having problems with regards to that exchange rate,” Pateh said. 

He alleged that the conversion rate they used was instructed by the then Minister for Finance, but stopped short of providing any evidence. 

Mod K. Secka, the then-permanent secretary at the Ministry of Finance said the Minister for Finance had made no such instruction. 

Malagen estimates that from what appeared to be exchange rate manipulation on even the potentially vastly understated container count, the state has likely been defrauded more than D10m. 

The operation launched against the timber trafficking ring, leading to the confiscation of significant quantities of rosewood, was coordinated between Senegal and The Gambia. The decision to export the seized timber was authorised through a bilateral agreement. The two countries agreed to share the proceeds equally. 

Out of the D199.2m deposited into the account as the total penalty collected from the export of what appeared to be an understated count of 1177 containers, The Gambia had paid D50m to Senegal in December 2019, according to official documents obtained by Malagen. 

Senegal then opted to contribute the remaining balance of D50m to The Gambia as a donation for the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) after a request from the then-Justice Minister, Abubakary Tambadou. 

“Our ministry had wanted to use that D50m from Senegal, plus another D50m from the sale of Jammeh’s assets, making it D100m, to give to the Jammeh victims,” a senior official at the Ministry of Justice told Malagen. 

The TRRC has received D50m from the sale of assets of the former president. Four years on, Senegal’s D50m donation remains outstanding, failing to reach the victims of the former president’s human rights violations. 

“We were left wondering what happened [to the D50m],” another senior official at the ministry of justice said. 

With Senegal’s D50m donation, The Gambia now has D149.2m to spend from the timber exports. As of April 2023, only D45.1m was left in the accounts at the Central Bank, with over D100m spent.  

The various expenses made from extra budgetary funds range from purchase of riot control gears and vehicles for the police and army to vehicles for the Ministry of Environment, all without approval of the National Assembly, potentially violating the Public Finance Act.