What the D274 million Securiport figure means

Where the D274.9 million number came from

The Standard republished Malagen's investigation on 17 September 2022. The article said Malagen calculated a possible financial loss of more than D274.9 million to the state ¹. The figure is the publication's calculation. It is not presented in the article as a court award, a criminal finding or a single amount certified by the National Audit Office ¹.

The distinction matters. A media calculation can combine contract payments, alleged losses, revenue differences or future exposure under one headline figure. An audit report lists each transaction and finding separately. Readers should check the method before treating a combined media number as an official loss ^1,2.

What the National Audit Office recorded

The National Audit Office examined procurement and contract management, plus collections from 1 September 2019 to 31 May 2021 ². Its management letter contains 36 findings and prints responses from Securiport, the Gambia Civil Aviation Authority and government bodies ².

The largest Dalasi payment item in the report is D164,053,036. The Ministry of Finance approved five payments to Securiport Gambia LLC between 16 February and 9 December 2021 for revenue claimed to have accrued when fee collection had not started ². The auditors recommended that government stop further arrears payments until it obtained legal advice. They said recovery should follow if the legal opinion favoured government ².

The report gives other figures with separate meanings. It calculated a US$250,315.93 revenue difference, equal to D12,928,817.70, between expected revenue and revenue reported for the audit period ². It recorded differences between point-of-sale receipts and bank deposits of D5,580,985 and US$160,093 ². It recorded omitted point-of-sale collections in Dalasi, euro and sterling, plus D320,000 used for salaries from four days of collections ².

Why the figures cannot be merged without a method

The D164,053,036 item concerns government arrears payments. The D12,928,817.70 item concerns an audit estimate of a revenue variance. The bank and point-of-sale differences concern reconciliation. They cover different transactions and may use different currencies ². Adding them can double count the same money or mix a payment with a reporting variance ².

The audit did not state that its separate findings add to D274.9 million ². A reader can quote the Malagen figure as Malagen's calculation and quote the NAO amounts as audit findings. The two should not be described as the same official number ^1,2.

What the responses said

Securiport said the contract made government liable after it did not obtain an IATA code for ticket collection. The company said government bodies verified the arrears figures ². The auditors maintained that government should have obtained legal advice before paying and should consider recovery if the advice favoured the state ².

On collection accounts, Securiport said funds due to government remained available and were transferred when the joint account became active. GCAA said the joint accounts were operating and that officials had been assigned to monitor collections and reconciliation ². The auditors kept some collection findings open where the supporting records did not answer the point raised ².

What later official records show

The government's 2025 revenue estimates included a line for Securiport fees. The table recorded D112,802,638 for 2024 approved revenue and D188,179,645 as the 2025 estimate ³. Those budget figures do not settle the earlier audit findings. They show that the fee remained part of the public revenue framework in the later budget record ^2,3.

No source on this page establishes that D274.9 million was adopted by a court, the National Audit Office or the Ministry of Finance as one final loss amount ^1,23.