By Landing Colley
Rohey Malick, Low Lord Mayor of Banjul, has told National Assembly select committee on Local Government at a area council meeting with the committee that councils are ripped off their subventions
“We were having ten or fifteen million from car parks according to our CEO’s and now the car parks resources are not coming as they are only us given one million every year compare to before,” she said on Wednesday in Banjul.
She added: “Banjul Council does not receive anything order than one million dalasi maximum. From that amount Council pay salaries and this is what they are calling subvention. And people expect development out of that money, which cannot be possible.”
They need their subvention as the councils are not having the money, revealing that everything is taken away from the council, she said.
She said that the area councils are having limited resource adding they either gets their money from license, rate or car parks and most of this institution are not paying licenses as they put themselves above the Local Government.
She said: “The problem we are having is financial constrain as the subventions are not coming despite people wants to see the development and council don’t have the money.”
However, she said the financial statement is very important as people need to know were there money is going, adding that the subvention is very important for the fact that without the subvention people cannot have the development they want.
The Local Government act is saying 25% of the development budget should be allocated to council but councils are not receiving this, she pointed out.
“All of us will agree that council is the government of the people, as they are near to the people and they know their problem better. We cannot compete with central government we are there to complement the effort and not to compete them as they don’t have the resource,” she said
