By Kebba Ansu Manneh
A Gambian economist and former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Economics Affairs, Mamour Malick Jagne, has described certain government allocations in the 2019FY budget as unnecessary, exorbitant and not priorities for the citizens of The Gambia.
The career civil servant made this observation in an exclusive interview with The Times on the sidelines of a two-day training of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and the media fraternity on the 2019 Draft Budget, organized by the International Republican Institute (IRI),
It could be recalled that last week the National Assembly started deliberations on the estimates of revenues and expenditures for the upcoming Fiscal Year 2019 with members offering amendments after days of intense scrutiny. Their activities came following the estimates in the tune of D25.28 billion presented to the legislative body by the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Mambury Njie.
“From the point of view of certain allocations, I am not happy because there are certain allocations that I consider unnecessary, exorbitant and not priorities. For example, defense is over six hundred million dalasis, whom are we defending ourselves against?” Mr. Jagne asked in the rhetorical question.
He said The Gambia is blessed with a natural defense which he said is Senegal, arguing that such an allocation could be better utilized to beef up the internal security thus empowering the police who are responsible for internal security.
Mr. Jagne disclosed that from 1965 up to 1981, The Gambia didn’t have an army, arguing that the army has to be reviewed, its seize and level of professionalism also enhanced.
He questioned how the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is allocated more money than the Ministry of Health, arguing that agriculture, tourism and fisheries which have productive potentials for the economy are seriously neglected to certain degrees.
While expressing his worries over how The Gambia Government plans to spends its proposed D25.28 billion over the course 2019 fiscal year, the seasoned economist said, the more than six hundred million dalasis allocated to the Office of the President is unnecessary and misplaced a priority.
“What I am worried is how the money is going to be spent because spending six hundred million on defense and six hundred million on the Office of the President are not wise spending. Why pay six advisers of the president for two million dalasis and not spending much funds for things that will make us more independent and stronger,” the former Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs expressed his worries as he asked.
He disclosed that The Gambia Government must shift its expenditures from purely cosmetic to activities that are real in the economy. He said such expenditures spent on the presidential advisers could be better utilized to provide subsidies to small enterprises so that they can grow and continue to pay taxes.
Mr. Jagne, who once worked at the Senegambia Confederation, further argued that if significant portion of the 2019FY budget is earmarked for consumption thus buying vehicles, office equipment, prices for fuel among others will increase further. He argued that the budget can only be meaningful if it is spent on the productive sectors of the economy. He said this will involve spending more on agriculture, tourism, fisheries and other services that will generate returns for the country.
“This budget can only benefit Gambians if it is going directly to the productive sectors of the economy. This will generate growth and employment, however, if it’s going to consumption only the situation of Gambians will become worst, and it will have implications on the balance of payment of our economy,” the seasoned economist contends.
Dilating on recent proposed salary increase for public servant by 50 percent and pensioners by 100 percent, Mr. Jagne said it’s not about salary increment but maintaining a small motivated, efficient and highly paid civil servants.
“I think what we need is a small efficient and highly paid and motivated civil servants because low paid civil servants are bad for the country and for the economy,” he argued.
According to him, The Gambia Government needs to critically looked at the number of civil servants because by blindly spending huge sums of money on demotivated civil servants will not be a solution to the woes of the country, adding that if such increment of salaries of the civil servants will bring quality out of their work then it will be a good move.
“Since independent The Gambia have been relying on 47 percent external debt and grant to balance the budget and to me this is not sustainable,” the former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance disclosed.
However, he said there are prospect for growth of the Gambian economy, noting that more tourists are arriving for the Winter Holidays, increases in the number of hotels being built as well the booming construction industry are all signs of activities for economic growth.
He said government must introduce stringent measures to control its spending in a bit to meeting the sustainable development goals and continue to create employment opportunities for the youths.
“The advice I will give to the Government of The Gambia is to revolutionized agriculture so that we can move away from old methods of production to new methods of production,” Jagne offered as an advice to The Gambia Government.
As the two-days training was taking place and with just twenty days left for the year, Mambury Njie, the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, yesterday, bamboozled legislators and stormed the nation by requesting lawmakers to approve retroactive spending of approximately D1.12 billion the government, without prior legislative approval, spent for the 2018FY.
To many critics of the government, this latest stunt by the Mr. Njie, who was recycled from the government of Yahya Jammeh for the same position he’d held before, was an old budgetary tactics that Jammeh used to get the senile legislature under his total and complete dominance to legitimize his unlawful financial malfeasances. In November 2014, Jammeh through his Vice President, Isatou Njie-Saidy, asked members of the National Assembly to approve a D1.1 billion Supplementary Budget Bill the government had already spent without prior legislative approval in that year.
Speaking to The Times on condition of anonymity, a political observer said “it’s a retrogression turning in on all the wrong corners. Under former President Jammeh, they used to go to the National Assembly a month before the end of the year to approve their illegal supplementary budgets; but under President Barrow, they go to the legislature just twenty days before the end of the year to acquiesce. This is just at the beginning of a leader who want to prolong his stay in office than he’s welcomed by The Gambian people. Let’s wait and see what the members of cabinet will do under his orders when President Barrow becomes very comfortable with executive power.”
Reacting to the request for the approval of the Supplementary Budget by the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Madi Jobarteh, who is the head of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy office in The Gambia wrote a piece on his Facebook Page calling on members of the National Assembly to reject the approval of the D1.12 Billion Supplementary Budget Bill for 2018FY. The one billion dalasi question is whether the legislature has a choice to reject approval of the Supplementary Spending Bill incurred, presumably, in deficit financing mainly through borrowing. That would have negative impact on the credit ratings of The Gambia with devasting repercussions on the fragile economy of the heavily indebted poor country.
Angered by the request made by the Minister of Finance, some dissidents and activists are circulating on social media and have created a WhatsApp Group calling on citizens to organize a protest at the National Assembly under the slogan “#OccupyNA.”