Members of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Defense and Security recently engaged the Interior Minister and senior officials of the country’s security outfits under his ministry, to discuss the Committee’s report following its recently concluded visit to the security installations across the country.
The meeting was to enable the said lawmakers to put their report before the security officials and have views on the matters contained therein, for effective scrutiny, consideration and advise to the plenary on matters dealing with defense and security.
Speaking at the opening of the meeting, the National Assembly Member for Serekunda Central, Hon. Halifa Sallah, who is the Vice-Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Defense and Security, told the gathered security officers that the committee is established under section 109 of the constitution.
The seasoned NAM informed them that the Standing Orders of the National Assembly provided the committee with its mandates to scrutinize, consider, adopt and advise on all matters dealing with defense and security. Sallah added it has a responsibility of oversight and can propose legislation to enhance the operations of the security sector.
“In the last budget session, the committee was responsible for scrutinizing, considering and advising on the budgetary allocation of the defense and interior sector,” he told the audience.
Hon. Sallah went on: “The committee considered it prudent that after going through that exercise, it should roll out and visit the security law enforcement installations across the country, in order to find out the challenges they are facing, and based on those challenges to make recommendations.” He told the security officials that the Standing Committee has finished two of its activities dealing with that visit to the security installations, and has prepared a consolidated report on the roll out to the security installations throughout the country.
The report, he disclosed, is to be tabled during the Second Ordinary Session of the National Assembly which commenced in mid-June 2021.
“In that regard, the committee considered it wise to share the content of the report with the policy-makers and the operational leaders of the security sector, prior to tabling it before the plenary,” the security officers heard. He reasoned, this was due to the realization that the information is security sensitive and that certain information should not go to the public domain, as such information may indicate weaknesses which certain people might be able to capitalize on for other purposes.
“In that regard, it was deemed necessary to bring policy-makers and the operational commanders together, so that we look at the report, form a very objective point of view. We have a section dealing with recommendations,” Sallah pointed out.
Instead, he said, the committee had decided only to indicate constraints and the challenges so that those in charge would be able to review the constraints, and if they do agree, then they (those in charge) would prioritize the responses to those challenges and the committee would take such responses on board as recommendations of the committee.
The honourable member argued: “Matters that they may also deem not to be best featured in public space, we will know those matters, and therefore, part of the report will be tabled for public consumption. And the other part will be referred to the institutions involved for their consideration and for the consideration of the National Assembly.”
The interface saw the presence of the Interior Minister Yankuba Sonko, senior personnel of the Gambia Police Force (GPF), the Gambia Immigration Department (GID), the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Gambia Prisons Service, and Gambia Fire and Services.
