(Jollofnews) – Answers To 10 Questions We Need To Know From The Gambia Government:
1. The Minister of Foreign Affairs
2. The Minister of Finance
3. The Chair of the National Assembly Select Committee on Public Accounts
Given the growing concerns about the frequency and cost of international travels by the President, Vice President, Ministers and Senior Government Officials, the citizens of the Gambia have a right to know the following:
1. How much has been spent on each of the travels of the President or the Vice President to ECOWAS, AU, OIC and UN and to various countries in Africa and Europe in the past 8 months?
2. How many foreign missions does the Gambia currently have and in which countries?
3. How many individuals have been appointed to our foreign missions in the past 8 months and on what qualifications?
4. How many vehicles have the Gambia Government bought in the past 8 months and how much do they cost the taxpayer?
5. How many jobs have the Gambia Government created in the past 8 months?
6. How many loans and how much are those loans that the Gambia Government contracted in the past 8 months?
7. How many and how much grants have the Gambia Government received in the past 8 months?
8. How many contracts has the Gambia Government entered into with foreign private entities and in which areas of the economy and development?
9. How many public-private partnerships (PPP) have been negotiated and concluded and between which public enterprises and private entities (local or foreign)?
10. How much money is the Gambia Government spending on the maintenance of Office of the President in the past 8 months?
Gambians have a right to know the answers to these 10 questions. The Government of the Gambia derives its legitimacy from the people of the Gambia and they perform their functions on behalf of the people of the Gambia. This is an entrenched constitutional provision under Section 1 sub-section 2.
Gambians therefore must know how our Government receives money and how it spends that money in full and in truth. The current dire conditions of life in this country are a threat to national security. The public confidence and trust in the Government of Adama Barrow is fast eroding. Citizens are frustrated by the lack of adequate and efficient delivery of social services and the growing cost of living.
Yet Gambians continue to watch how officials of the Government engage in activities that consume millions of dalasi on a consistent and continuous basis. This is unacceptable. For that matter the Gambia Government under the leadership of Adama Barrow must tell Gambians how they utilize our public resources so that we are not left in the dark.
We cannot and must not allow another Yaya Jammeh scenario to repeat in this country where public officials bastardise public resources with impunity. We would not have to hear the revelations at the Janneh Commission today if indeed the Yaya Jammeh Government was transparent and accountable in the way it utilized our money in the first place.
Now that we have a new Government, we expect nothing other than transparency, accountability and probity. Barrow has a legal and political and moral duty to ensure that Gambians have full public information on time and in full without let or hindrance.
Hence I hereby demand that President Adama Barrow as the Chief Servant of the People of the Republic of the Gambia cause the Minister of Foreign Affairs Ousainou Darboe and the Minister of Finance Amadou Sanneh to provide pertinent and urgent national information to these 10 vital questions to the satisfaction of the masses of the Gambia.
Similarly I call on the Speaker of the National Assembly Mariam Denton to cause the Chair of the National Select Committee on Public Accounts and Public Enterprises to obtain and provide answers to these 10 vital questions to the people of the Gambia.
I call on all citizens to raise these questions and many more in all forums and platforms at home, in neighborhoods, in work places and public places to demand for answers. Until we ask there will be no answers. Unless we act, the Government will not respond. The responsibility to make the Gambia a democratic, developed and peaceful society lies squarely on the hands of citizens. If we abandon or ignore the decisions and actions of the Gambia Government then we will only succeed in harming ourselves, today and tomorrow.
God Bless The Gambia.
One more question- how much money is the Commission paying the hotel hosting its sittings? Why they didn’t use the empty court rooms at the High Court for free? Who is behind this wasteful arrangements?
These are the questions every Gambian urgently wants to get an answer for. And there is no reason why these demands shouldn’t be grantig. If the Government fails to recognise it is accountable to the people, it is not worth its money and
must be brought to its senses.
The Government must act now, before it is too late!
And in added to the Ten question Madi, I have heard the president say in his speech at the UN General Assembly …
”Mr. President,
We may be a small country but one with huge needs : As a matter of urgent priority, we have developed a New National Development Plan in line with the transformative agenda of the new Government. This development blueprint is designed to put the country back on track to economic growth and prosperity following two decades of mismanagement, corruption and widespread human rights violations. This new plan is built on sound macro-economic and fiscal policies that will lead to stability and economic growth over the medium and long term. It has also incorporated the Sustainable Development Goals and other commitments contained in Agenda 2030 and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.”
My question is where is the National Development Plan; a development blueprint according to the president which was designed to put the country back on track to economic growth and prosperity following two decades of mismanagement ? Is this a secrete document which only a selected few have an access to ?.
I have heard the Foreign Minister Mr Darboe refereeing to this very document a few weeks ago and now president Barrow in his address to the UN General assembly, But did the document really exist ? If it exist then why is it not published for the Gambian people to know what it entails ? or do we not deserve to know what is in it ? this is not transparency which is a very important aspect of good governance.
It is improper for us to be hearing about this document only in speeches and statements by the president and his minister before it’s publication.
This document should be published now if it existed at all.
Bourne,
One thing I’m fully aware of is that you’ll NEVER understand the contents of my writings. I believe, we’ll always keep apart, until you verily discern the information in my writings. I cannot express myself any better to someone who doesn’t have an indepth look at my pieces.
Look, Bourne, I have said since DAY 1 that the present INEPT administration will never honestly and meaningfully deliver the needs and aspirations of our people.
Based on facts that I always give (which you always deliberately avoid to mention in your criticisms of me), I remind you and all on-line contributors(Madi Jobarteh, Njundu Drammeh…) and readers that our collective mistake ( I may humbly exclude myself from it) was to delegate an ILLITERATE for such an august office/responsibility.
With the on-going global socio-economic and political complexities how could we so erroneously delegate a man with so low a standard of education /global understanding to crusade the affairs of our nation? That was the first mayor error in our Gambian political decision.
Next error was the reaction of he now disillusioned Jammeh Opposition in the diaspora who were very quick surrendering their conscience and dignity to a group whose true colours they have never encountered.
Understanding your (the opposition in the diaspora) greed for power, Barrow, Ousainou Darbo, Mai Fatty, Hamat Bah were swift in playing down with your psyche, thus keeping a deaf ear to your demands and expectations. That’s why they placed their close family buddies and party stalwarts in key government positions and took the laissez-faire attitude of governing
Honestly writing, people back home are more disillusioned with this corrupt and self-effacing government than the opposition (turned stooges) in the diaspora.
Don’t you know that the 53-man delegatuion to the UN G/Assembly requested their per diem emoluments in DOLLARS not DALASIS? That would accrue each of them D300,000, a staggering over D15,000,000 from our poor taxpayers’ money.
Don’t you know that the on-going interminable refurbishing works at the State House in Banjul was given to the Kombo Gunjur based DABA NANI Construction Company without tender? This company is directly related to the present NAM Mayority leader, Mr Barrow who is also a citizen of Kombo Gunjur?
Since January 2017, millions of dalasis have been squandered. The corrupt Barrow administration will never answer to the veracity of their spending that is being questioned here by Madi Jobarteh. They will brush it aside as a JALIKUNDA attempt to blow the trumpet. Is President Jammeh still to be blamed?
I simply get angry at your conformist attitudes!