Apparently, the wise counsels for President AdamaBarrow to apply the brakes on the worrying rate of overseas travel by government officials and senior staff of state agencies have finally homed in on the President.
After exerting strains on the public purse for several years now, President Barrow has now decided to slam the brakes on foreign travel by himself, his Vice President, and other cadres of the civil service.
But it’s too little, too late, bearing in mind that it’s just a little over four months when 2023 will pack up its luggage to give room to 2024.
It does not make any economic sense to go on a financial binge for eight months only to turn around and say we’re stopping the extravaganza because we want to “cut expenditure”.
It wasn’t ages ago when President Barrow flew to New York with a plane-load of officials and NPP supporters, ostensibly to attend the UN General Assembly. Some of these delegation members were unlettered and the rationale for ferrying them to New York just simply unjustified.
And, it will be worth noting that the overseas travels by the Gambian President himself have seemingly emboldened his officials and those at other strata of government to abuse the public pocket for all these years all in the name of foreign travels.
For example, before gracing with his own presence, some of the national days of other African countries with an army of officials and supporters in tow, Mr. Barrow could have simply sent his VP, the foreign affairs minister, the Chief of Defense Staff (CDS), the police chief, the interior minister and those we could not name here, to step in his shoes. These were some of the cost-cutting measures we expected the President to implement in the past eight months.
Meanwhile, the Presidency and the foreign ministry have used more money than any other department in this fiscal binge carried out under the veneer of overseas trips.
So, who is to blame?
