The National Assembly of the Gambia wasn’t happy with the conduct of the government’s chief legal advisor, Lawyer Dawda Jallow as he failed to appear, as scheduled, on Tuesday, before the nation’s legislature.
This might attract possible censure by the lawmakers, as they threatened to charge the Attorney General and Minister of Justice for contempt of the assembly, because he failed to be present at the assembly during its session on Tuesday for the consideration of the bills that he’s in charge of.
Delivering Assembly’s stance on Minister Jallow’s failure to appear, Speaker Lawyer Mariam Jack-Denton, informed the National Assembly Members (NAMs) that the Attorney General and Minister of Justice was scheduled to appear before the assembly, for the various businesses under his responsibility.
“However, I regret to inform this [august] assembly that the Attorney General is currently out of the jurisdiction and will not be able to attend to his businesses as scheduled. This fact was made known to the offices of the Speaker and the Clerk this morning (Tuesday), as we were about to enter the Chambers for business”, the speaker informed them. She further stated that the approved agenda for the current session was shared with all the Ministries well in good time, for the attention of the various honorable Ministries of the government, particularly, those who have businesses in parliament.
Precisely, she went on, the approved agenda was circulated on the 10th of January 2022, “almost a month ago, for the due attention of all the honorable Ministers, including the Hon. Attorney General. Receipt of this is acknowledged by the Ministry of Justice”.
In addition, the order paper for the day (Tuesday), which is a direct copy of the agenda, was shared with the Justice Ministry as required by the Standing Orders of the Assembly, Madam Denton stated.
“Honourable Members, as presiding officer, I am very concerned that parliament will not be able to proceed with business today, due to the unavailability of the Hon. Attorney General, without any prior formal communication to the office of the Speaker or the Clerk”, she told the legislators.
For that reason, Speaker Denton requested the Assembly Business Committee dubbed ABC, to urgently convene a meeting to look into this matter and review the conduct of AG and Justice Minister, in accordance with sections 74, 75, 77 (1) and 110 of the 1997 constitution of the Republic of The Gambia, and the various provisions of the Standing Orders of the National Assembly. The ABC shall then advise the plenary of the National Assembly for any possible further action.
“Notwithstanding, the Hon. Attorney General is hereby required to tender a letter of apology to the Assembly for his failure to appear to attend to businesses under his charge in parliament without prejudice to the right of the Assembly to take any further action”, she echoed.
She further quoted the resolution of the assembly at its sitting of Tuesday, 22nd June 2021 on the same subject matter which reads; “Henceforth, all Ministers shall be required to appear in person before the assembly as scheduled, to answer to businesses under their charge or officially notify the assembly in good time the overseeing Hon. Minister instead.”
On that note, the Speaker cautioned that Cabinet Ministers and government at large, “is reminded to take the business of the parliament very seriously and to attend to their schedules, accordingly. Failure of such, the assembly will be left with no option but to charge defaulting Minsters for contempt”.
In his intervention on the development, Hon. Sidia Jatta, Member for Wuli West, said the Minister concerned should be called and charged with contempt of parliament. “If we don’t do that, then we are not helping ourselves”. He also proposed that “from now on, Standing Order 40 of our standing orders must be applied to the letter”. The said Standing Order indicates that for every session, the Vice President and Ministers must come to the parliament to answer oral questions, and Jatta argued that standing orders had never been applied by the assembly.
The seasoned parliamentarian stressed that anybody (concerned) who fails to come there (at the assembly) must be charged with contempt of the parliament, otherwise “we are not doing justice to ourselves”.
