By: Sainabou Sambou
Kanifing Municipal Council Mayor and Unite Leader Talib Ahmed Bensouda has filed an appeal at the Court of Appeal challenging findings made against him by the Commission of Inquiry into the Conduct of Local Government Councils and Connected Matters.
The appeal, registered as Civil Appeal No.
GUN-063/2026, is brought under Section 204 of the Constitution of the Republic of The Gambia.
Bensouda is contesting a finding contained in a Notice to an Adversely Mentioned Person issued by the Secretary to the Commission on 12 May 2026.
In his Notice of Appeal, the mayor said he was dissatisfied with the Commission’s conclusions and therefore sought the intervention of the Court of Appeal on the grounds set out in the filing.
A central ground of the appeal concerns the Commission’s finding that Bensouda exercised political and executive influence in a manner capable of causing or sustaining irregular commitments, unauthorized expenditure, irregular project direction and extra-statutory financial exposure.
Bensouda argued that the Commission failed to specify the particular expenditure over which he allegedly exercised such influence, or to identify which payments were unauthorized or irregular. He maintained that the council’s accounting officers authorized all payments made by the Kanifing Municipal Council.
The mayor emphasized that he is not a council accounting officer and therefore has no legal power to authorize payments. Responsibility for approving expenditure, he said, rested with the appropriate accounting officers and not with him in his capacity as mayor.
Bensouda further stated that, as the duly elected mayor, he had a mandate to ensure that the council pursued and implemented the commitments made to voters at the time of his election. That political and executive role, he argued, did not make him an accounting officer or give him authority to approve spending.
He challenged the Commission’s characterization of his functions and the alleged link between those functions and irregular financial practices. The appeal contends that the findings conflate political leadership with financial authorization in a manner not supported by the Local Government Act or public financial management laws.
The Court of Appeal has not yet set a hearing date. The case is expected to test the legal boundary between a mayor’s policy and oversight role and the statutory duties of council accounting officers.
If successful, the appeal could set aside or qualify the adverse finding against Bensouda. The Commission’s report has already drawn public attention to financial management at several councils, including Kanifing. Bensouda’s challenge now places those conclusions before the judiciary.
