The maiden news bulletin on ‘Accountability and Transparency’ was on Friday, 28 January 2022, launched at TANGO’s hall in Kanifing, where the Head of Programs and Grants at the Open Society Platform Gambia (OSPG) Mr. Abdoulie Jadama, called on the government of the Gambia to take decisive steps to tackle corruption. Reason: He cautioned that corruption is a threat to national peace and security, and also ‘public enemy number one’ in this country.
The news bulletin and their maiden-newsletter’s first edition covers the months of November and December 2021. The newsletter showcases OSPG and CSO [Civil Society Organization] partners, while highlighting the media’s coverage of the Presidential Election (December 4, 2021], Asset Declaration, the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC), transparency, accountability and corruption in the Gambia.
The objective of the launching of accountability and transparency news bulletin, among other things, is to enhance strong communication medium on accountability and transparency in the country, and also enhance the visibility of the project partners and objectives to mobilize and reach large constituencies of the population.
OSPG is a non-profitable organization and a registered civil society organization working in collaboration with both government and CSO partners to foster an enabling environment for accountability and transparency through citizen engagement and dialogue with key state institutions.
With support from the National Democratic Institute (NDI) Country Office in The Gambia, under their Political Accountability, Inclusivity and Resiliency Support (PAIRS) Program, OSPG, according to them, is implementing a local initiative that supports CSOs engaging the government to implement key reforms that would create an open, transparent and accountable society.
Describing it as the first time accountability and transparency news bulletin in The Gambia, Jadama explained the initiative aimed to create awareness as well as mobilize large constituency of the public from different walks of life to fight corruption, which, he lamented, is very endemic in our society today.
“For example, from 2021 Transparency International Corruption Index, The Gambia is ranked 102 out 180 countries above only 78 countries. This demonstrated that for the past 12 months, there is no change in the attitude of Gambians towards corruption and corrupt practices,” the senior OSPG official told the launch ceremony.
Jadama added this was exacerbated by the political class of this country, reasoning for the past two years, Anti-Corruption Bill was stuck in the National Assembly and it couldn’t be passed into national law that could help to fight corruption.
“In addition, there are series of corruption scandals being uncovered by either citizens, Auditor General like the case of Covid-19 funds, Gam-Petroleum scandal that involved over $30M, and of recent, the newspaper report of the [alleged] $4M corruption scandal at the Central Bank of The Gambia (CBG) and many more massive looting of state resources by public servants and or political class, and they get away with it,” he opined.
On the fight against corruption, he pointed to increasing awareness about the existence of corruption in society and building the capacity of the citizens to instill the ethics of honesty, moral uprightness, and value of open and responsible governance among the citizenry.
“The transparency and accountability news bulletin will have the opportunity to advance the anti-corruption agenda through advocacy for the implementation of UN Convention against Corruption, which has now reached near-universal ratification, providing a comprehensive global framework to fight corruption in alignment with the 2030 Agenda,” Jadama maintained.
He believes this good initiative should also benefit the wider communities, especially in geographical locations beyond the city of Banjul, to share the information with partners at local and regional level across the country.
However, Jadama, challenged journalists to go beyond their comfort zones to search for news about corruption, as he also called on the civil society to remain vigilant and watch for abuse of office by all the arms of the government; and to share the information with the citizens of the country to make them aware of abuse of power and responsibility by single and/ or group of individuals for their personal gains.
The Head of Programs and Grants concluded by reassuring that OSPG remains committed to continue working with the government and partners to foster more responsive, accountable and transparent systems of governance.
Other speakers included Senior Program Assistant at NDI, Lala Touray.
