By Bakary Touray Jrn.
The heads of Banjul City of Council (BCC), Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC), and other Councils in the country had enunciated the constraints affecting the operations of their respective administrative bodies.
Mayoress Lowe of BCC, Mayor Bensouda of KMC, and Chairmen Sonko of BAC, Bojang of KAC, L.B. Sanneh of MAC, Jawara of Kuntaur, Janko Sanneh of Janjanbureh, and Danjo of Basse Area Council made the constraints known during their recent engagement with members of National Assembly Select-Committee on Regional Government.
The interface between members of the Legislative House and administrative heads, was meant to share ideas and agree on a baseline for preparation of the financial statements of the respective
Councils.
Mayoress Rohey Malick Lowe of Banjul City Council, highlighted inadequate government subvention coupled with limited resources as constraints facing the Councils. She urged that the Lands Ministry takes Local Government with seriousness.
The female head of the capital city further urged the stakeholders to intervene and ensure that the Councils are adequately subvented by the government, in order to push forward their development agenda.
Lord Mayor of Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC), Mr. Ahmed Talib Bensouda, enjoined that they have to look forward “if we are to progress”.
The mayor disclosed that he had financial statements from 2017 to 2019 and didn’t have any issue from the administrative side. He added, “We don’t have an issue with financial statements, although the audit part is a bit slow.”
Bensouda spoke of ensuring that the administrative room is providing credible financial statements and reiterated that compliance is at the center of their procurement procedures. The KMC chief made it clear that the money used in procurement belongs to the taxpayers and not the councils.
The Chairman of Brikama Area Council, Mr. Sheriffo Sonko, lauded the Select Committee’s initiative that would change the attitudes of the councils in the preparations of their financial statements.
He urged the Committee to look into the revenue base of the councils, revealing that a lot of mining activities are taking place within West Coast Region, without them consulting the BAC.
He also appealed that such sources of revenue are given back to the Councils to be able to meet the demands of their people.
Mr. Malamin IL Bojang, Chairman of Kerewan Area Council, cited the cutting down of trees, lack of royalties from the taxes collected from the Senegambia Bridge, bringing projects {to their areas}without the consultation of the council, as challenges facing his Council.
The KAC chair therefore, requested the committee to intervene and provide solutions, noting that could contribute immensely to bringing development in the region.
Chairman of Mansakonko Area Council, Mr. Landing B. Sanneh, said development is a process, which guides {them in} the performance of their responsibilities, and assured that they working tirelessly to ensure that a sound and credible financial statement is presented to the deputies.
“We want to be as proactive as possible and we are working on organizing more proactive working sessions, so that we comprehensively deliberate on some of the challenging issues. We want to do away with blame games and move on as government, people, country, and this cannot happen without the councils,” the head of MAC told the lawmakers.
Pointing out that Councils have made enormous achievements, Chairman Sanneh therefore, maintained that the issue of financial statement “cannot over shadow those achievements”.
He underlined: “So, it is my belief that we are moving on the right direction, and the two-day working sessions will help us map out the way forward, so that we come with a consensus to operate as a team.”
Mr. Saihou Jawara is the Chairman of Kuntaur Area Council. He told the Assembly’s Select Committee that the baseline would enable them present a befitting financial statement to the committee.
However, he posited that the central government uses Councils as entry points for any sustainable and meaningful development projects.
Janjanbureh Area Council’s boss, Mr. Ibrahim Janko Sanneh, called for government’s assistance to ensure the successful implementation of their development crusades, with particular reference to Jahally Pacharr Rice Field, which he believed, could guarantee food self-sufficiency for the country.
Mr. Foday Danjo of Basse Area Council, in the Upper River Region, described the engagement as a turning point for the councils. He used the opportunity to call on the National Audit Office to come up with a standard format for use by all the councils, so as to support them in ensuring effective reporting on their activities.
Mr. Foma A.M. Ceesay, Chairman of Local Government Service Commission, informed that the meeting with the N/A Select Committee is to share ideas on how to prepare an acceptable financial statement that could be audited and submitted to the National Assembly.
He recommended for a special forum to be created wherein they could exhaustively discuss and adopt a strategy that could be comprehensive, proactive and helpful to all the stakeholders such as Councils and the Lands Ministry.
The Director of Governance at the Ministry of Lands and Regional Government, Ms. Fatou Gibba, stated that the Ministry “cannot execute its functions” without the local Government authorities and vice-versa.
Madam Gibba called for attitudinal change and extra-commitment in their work, to ensure that all the monies in and out of Councils, are well-followed, monitored and accounted for.
