As 71 Mail Bags Found Tampered  

The Gambia Postal Services Corporation (GAMPOST) last Friday reportedly uncovered a high profile scam as a significant number of mailbags sent to Banjul from overseas were found tampered before reaching The Gambia.

According to our source, a total number of 71 mailbags were allegedly tampered by the time they reached Banjul from Dakar. The source added that the management of GAMPOST is currently busy working out modalities to return all the tampered mailbags to their countries of origin.

In the wake of this development, this reporter yesterday visited GAMPOST to get the other side of the story. Talking to this reporter in an interview, the Operations Manager of GAMPOST, Mr. Henry K. Davies, confirmed the veracity of the story, saying that they are in the process of sending the tampered packages back to their country of origin. He asserted that what used to happen at the former Post Office would no longer be tolerated. “People used to blame post office for tampering their mail bags when in actual fact they were tampered in the transit points. But the new management of GAMPOST will not tolerate any dubious deal. We will always ensure good customer service and satisfaction,” he said.

Asked whether there are mechanisms in place to compensate those affected, he replied that when the packages reach their countries of origin, their senders would pursue the matter with the authorities there. He said that they were only liable when registered mail bags from The Gambia got missing or tampered before reaching their destination.

“As you may know many people will be affected by this dubious deal but we would like to apologise to our customers for any inordinate delay in receiving their mailbags. We are doing everything possible to ensure that mailbags are not sent again via Dakar because any time mail bags are sent via Dakar there are always problems of tampering of mailbags,” he lamented.

Giving graphic detail of the matter, Sheikh Tijan, the Branch Manager Banjul, said that while they were in the process of checking the received mailbags last Friday, they noticed that most of the mail bags’ original seal were removed and replaced with some ordinary seals. He added that after their investigations they discovered that 18 mailbags from Paris, 51 mailbags from Amsterdam and 2 from Denmark had been tampered with.