By Adama Makasuba
Open Society Platform of The Gambia, an organisation fighting corruption in the country, has declared corruption as an endemic problem in the country.
The anti-corruption body made the declaration during the launch of its newsletter held at TANGO that brought together members of the civil society, State officials and journalists.
Speaking at the launching of the newsletter, Abdoulie Jadama, senior official of Open Society Platform of The Gambia, expressed dismay about rampant corruption in the country saying the country is failing its future.
“Is all around how do we fight corruption and sadly this country’s corruption has become an endemic now, it has become part of us and it has taken into the social fabric of our society,” he said.
“For example, Transparency International Index released the annual corruption index and The Gambia remained on the same spot one or two. We have moved from 96 points from 2019 and 2020 we were at 20 points; this means that we failed investment and nothing has happened,” Mr Jadama explained.
That’s too sad and too bad and we have nothing to explain to our children because it is better to invest that money somewhere rather than to invest around people who are aware of corruption.
According to him, the rampant corruption in the country is worsening due to lack of stringent laws against people practicing corruption, adding that an anti-corruption Bill has been languishing at the National Assembly for two years now.
“This is exacerbated by the fact that The Gambia doesn’t have any legal instrument, there are but they invested in other laws, but there is an anti-corruption Bill sitting at the National Assembly since December 2019. It cannot be enacted because of the political class and is the same political classes and the civil servants I can say in the society that conniving now to rob Gambian people. For instance, D148 million has been missing at the Ministry of Health. It’s not me, but the Auditor General who reported it, Gampetrolium $30 million,” he disclosed.
Meanwhile, he called on the government to take a decisive step in fighting corruption, because corruption is a national threat to the security of the country.
