WE ARE DISAPPOINTED
Coalition of Progressive Gambia hereby registered our total disappointment and lack of trust in the newly constituted commission of inquiry designed to investigate the conduct of councils mainly headed by opposition parties.
You may recall that the COPG mount a massive campaign against corruption, mismanagement of public resources, and the daily hikes in the prizes of basic commodities. We were called for dialogue by the Supreme Islamic Council in which the government was fully involved and therefore, participated in all sittings to find tangible and meaningful solutions to our demands without the movement going out on the streets to express our grievances, which the executive members of the COPG agreed to and therefore, postponed the November 11 nationwide peaceful demonstration until further notice.
But to our dismay, no single serious measures or actions were taken either to tackle the rising prices of basic commodities or any political will to combat the rampant corruption in the Barrow government.
It is with big disappointment that the Coalition Of Progressives Gambia notes the biased establishment of a commission of inquiry to partially investigate corruption within local councils while the same principal body swims in corruption only to give deaf ears and blind eyes to their massive corruption malpractice.
It is also unfortunate that the Government would ignore all the blatant corruption revealed bythe NAO from 20t7 to date. The auditors report on the special security account, the procurement frauds, and the massive corruption scandal from the Banjul project, the Gampetroleum USD 25 million stolen fuels, all the millions embezzled from the Covid-19 funds.
The unpublished report on the burning of the fisheries ministry, where valuable assets, cash books, files, and computers were all burnt to ashes. The four hundred million dalasis corruption scandal at GRA and the dubious secure port contract where millions of taxpayer’s monies are been embezzled with impunity but none of these embezzlements and mismanaged of public funds were accounted for.
Therefore, the COPG would like to remind the general public that after the postponement of the November 11 nationwide peaceful demonstration, the government failed to deliver or fulfill any of our concerns ranging from corruption to the high cost of living.
Audit reports over the past three to four years have revealed numerous cases of
corruption and mismanagement in all sectors and at all levels of government, including the Office of the President.
To our dismay, the Barrow government has closed its eyes to all those above mentioned corruption cases. It has neither investigated nor prosecuted any of those blatant cases of pilfering of our national resources.
We are disappointed and upset about this inaction by the government, which is tantamount to entrenching impunity of those unscrupulous officials who mortgage the future of our country; the COPG is planning to reschedule a nationwide peaceful demonstration against corruption.
The objective of the planned demonstration will be to call out the government,s perceived complicity with the corrupt officials, draw the attention of the Gambians to this unacceptable situation, and compel the government to recover our stolen national resources.
Seedy Cham
Chairrnan
