Finance Minister apologises to lawmakers for understating national budget

Hon. Abdou Kolley

Hon. Abdou Kolley, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, has apologised to the country’s lawmakers for understating the national budget while recently tabling the 2013 Annual Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure of the Government of The Gambia for the Fiscal year January to December 2013 at the National Assembly in Banjul.

“The Gambia government's 2013 expenditure and net-lending is projected at D8,301.5 billion and not D6,719.3 billion as stated while presenting the draft budget estimates before the House on Monday [3 December 2012],” Minister Kolley said on Wednesday at the National Assembly.

He added that the total revenue and grants for 2013 is D7,608.8 billion and not D6,528 billion.

Meanwhile, the National Assembly Members approved the 2013 Draft Budget Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure of The Gambia for the Fiscal Year January to December 2013, with amendments.

Speaking during the debate preceding the approval of the draft budget estimates, Hon. Fatou Mbye, the deputy speaker of the National Assembly, noted that the draft estimates are “very reasonable and realistic”, considering the economic situation of The Gambia and the anticipated expenditure and revenue.

She said the key social sectors, among them the education sector, continue to receive the attention they deserve, which she said is a tool to the attainment of the development objective. 

“It is an open secret that parents still pay for their children’s school fees and we look forward to a day when free and compulsory education will be a reality, particularly at the basic level,” she said.

Gambia National Assembly Members capacitised to scrutinize national budget

National Assembly Members in The Gambia have undergone some rigorous training to equip them with the skills to critically analyse and scrutinize the annual budget estimates of the government as well as on how to examine the core policy strategies and development objectives of the government vis-à-vis the budget.

The training was recently organised by the Pro-Poor Advocacy Group with the financial support of the United Nations Development Programme in collaboration with the African Development Bank (AfDB) under the Institutional Support for Economic and Financial Governance project.

Speaker Abdoulie Bojang

The two-day workshop was held to ensure the country’s lawmakers make informed decisions on the allocation of resources for the social priority sectors; to enable them to assess the adequacy or otherwise of the levels of funding provided for the social priority sectors to meet the Millennium Development Goals and Programme for Accelerated Growth and Employment (PAGE) - the Gambia government’s development blueprint; to identify the funding shortfalls thereto; and to discuss strategies and sector proposals for resource mobilisation.

Speaking on the occasion, Speaker of the National Assembly Abdoulie Bojang said the training was necessary to equip parliamentarians to put due emphasis on the rationale behind the policy strategies and goals of government.

“As elective representatives of the people, we are inclined to put emphasis into the social priority sectors of health, education and agriculture without necessarily limiting ourselves to only these sectors, as all other sectors and cross-cutting issues are equally important,” he said.

NYSS says government subvention not encouraging

The National Youth Service Scheme (NYSS), a government-established skills training center, which depends entirely on monthly government subvention, has said the way that the government is paying these subventions is least encouraging.

This was disclosed by NYSS’s Accountant, Mr. Edward B. Wright, in his financial report to the Public Account and Public Enterprise Committees (PAC/PEC) of the National Assembly on October 8, 2012.

“Most of the time NYSS financed its operations through bank overdrafts and this make it impossible to remit the tax deduction from staff to Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) because banks always refuse to honor such payments,” Mr Wright said on Monday.

According to him, when NYSS subvention is suppressed or underpaid it reflects directly on the budgeted activities and this resulted in the significant variances.

“NYSS will liaise with Ministry of Youth and Sports, and Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs forthwith to remit the arrears outstanding to GRA with immediate effect,” he said.

Gambia Competition Commission decries ‘insufficient funding’ from government

The executive secretary of the Gambia Competition Commission (GCC), has lamented the insufficient funding given to his institution by the government for the year 2011.

Mr. Amadou Ceesay said the budget submitted by the Commission to The Gambia government to enable it operate efficiently and effectively in the year 2011 was D25 million. “But only a paltry D7.9 million was given,” he lamented.

“This amount was only able to cover the Commission’s administrative expenses while the Commission had to seek financial and material support from international organizations, which were disposed to supporting newly-established, fledgling and under-funded institutions like ours (the GCC) to realize our planned activities,” he revealed.

However, he acknowledged the GCC has received financial support from various institutions like the European Union through its TradeCom project, the Small States Network for Enterprise Development (SSNED), the African Competition Forum (ACF), and International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

Mr. Ceesay was presenting the 2011 financial report of the GCC to the joint session of the Public Accounts and Public Enterprises Committees (PAC/PEC) of the National Assembly on October 3, 2012.   

The PAC/PEC adopted the reports of the GCC and commended Commission for its “stable annual activity and audited financial reports.” They noted that the reports are “binding and brilliant.” 

The primary responsibility of the GCC is to ensure that anti-competitive practices in the Gambia economy do not exist or are minimized. This, it does through the investigation of possible anti-competitive behaviour by enterprises.

GIEPA given additional mandate, tasked to help MSMEs to access finance

The Gambia Investment and Export Promotion Agency has been given additional task to provide services to the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to get access to finance, Kebba Touray, Minister of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment, has said. 

Trade Minister Kebba Touray

The Agency, whose main tasks include promoting and facilitating investment, business and export development in the country, is also mandated to provide small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) with business development services to sustain their growth and development.

This has followed the dissolution of the Indigenous Business Advisory Services (IBAS), a government institution established to provide aid and support, as well as serve as an impetus, to indigenous small and medium-sized enterprises in the country. 

This revelation was made on Tuesday during the question-and-answer session of the second meeting of the National Assembly in the 2012 Legislative Year.

The trade minister’s statement was prompted by a question posed by the National Assembly Member for Janjanbureh, Foday Jibani Manka, who asked the minister to “inform this Assembly the current service of this institution (IBAS) and its effectiveness, to be able to strengthen and promote a dynamic enterprise culture providing necessary ingredients which will accelerate socio-economic growth for Gambians, particularly for unemployed youths”.

Gambia establishes parliamentary association with Ivory Coast, Turkey

The Gambia’s National Assembly Members Tuesday adopted motions establishing ‘Parliamentary Friendship Association’ with Ivory Coast and Turkey to further strengthen bilateral relations with these countries.

Turbo-Gambian Parliamentary Friendship Association and Ivory Coast-Gambia Parliamentary Association have been established to strengthen parliamentary friendship and cooperation among these countries.  

Majority leader Fabakary Tombong Jatta said it’s a well known fact that The Gambia and Turkey have for long time enjoyed excellent relations and cooperation, especially in military cooperation. 

It is in recognition of this and many other fruitful ties in recent history that both countries decided to establish the friendship association.

Hon. Ablie Suku Singhateh, National Assembly member for Lower Badibu, said The Gambia and Ivory Coast are almost of the same people and share a lot in common. 

“It is therefore my fervent belief that the establishment of this association between our two Assemblies shall further strengthen our ties and promote unity among the citizens of our two countries and as well promote sub-regional integration,” the Lower Badibu NAM remarked.