By Binta Jaiteh
Honourable Sulayman Saho, the lawmaker for Central Badibou, and the Majority Leader at the National Assembly, HonourableBillay G Tunkara yesterday washed off each other at the National Assembly in Banjul over the 2024 National Budget estimates.
Their clash came up when the Speaker of the National Assembly put a question for the members to debate on the consolidated report of the Public Accounts Committee on the Committees’ Consideration of the 2024 National Budget estimates.
Hon Saho, who has noted that in the introductory remarks of the Speaker, he mentioned that the Minister of Finance laid a budget before the Assembly which had a series of errors, and It is the same budget book that the lawmakers went through and was used in their committee level, too.
“Now FPAC is coming to give us a report on a budget that has a series of mistakes, I don’t think we should listen to FPAC to give us any narration but rather to work on the new one that has been submitted.
“Either, we have a day or two-day engagement but I don’t think at this moment we should allow FPAC to give us any report. There are three different copies of the budget which is conflicting; as National Assembly Members we cannot work on a document that is conflicting and it is illegal to work on an inconsistent budget,” he stated.
After his submission, Honourable Fabakary Tombong Jatta, the Speaker of the NA asked the member, if sure of being in contact with FPAC to know if they were using the old copy that had mistaken.
The member responded to the Speaker that they are working with the committee and it is the document that speaks.
Immediately, the Speaker said FPAC could correct those mistakes. He emphasized that before those statements he could have consulted FPAC.
Allagie S Darboe, Chairman of the Finance and Public Accounts Committee (FPAC) quickly informed the Assembly that they received a letter from the Ministry of Finance.
“The letter dated 21 November 2023 reads ‘I write to inform you that there was an error with the printing of the draft estimates of revenues and expenditures, and a final decision was taken to incorporate the commerce of cabinet following their deliberations on the draft budget on Wednesday 15 November 2023.
“The revised estimates with amendments were submitted to GPPC on Thursday 16 November 2023 but due to liberating time constrain the risk of human errors is likely to happen. It is also important to note that the two versions of the draft budget were shared but mistakenly the first version was printed saying that contained the comments of the cabinet.”
He stated that the budget statement delivered by the Minister during the laying of the draft estimates on Friday 17 November 2023 contained the correct estimate of revenues and expenditures. This letter was informed that there were errors however with the area on the text that was given and the sub-copy that was available and the Minister’s statement contained the correct version of the budget estimate at the time of the laying.
Furthermore, he continued, FPAC advised them to provide the corrected hard copy to the plenary, and then the attachments that were advanced noted the under-mentioned instructions affected but not general. “Those institutions include the Office of the President for only two budget lines, Ministry of Defense for only one budget line, Ministry of Foreign Affairs two budget lines contribution to local organization and welfare of Gambians, Ministry of Health drug, dressing and medical suppliers as well as consultancy hospitals clinics and health facilities, Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy, ICT infrastructure hardware network and facilities and purchased generator, Ministry of Environment contribution to International organizations and finally Ministry of Public Service, well, boreholes and water points. A total of five hundred million dalasi was the difference after the corrections. At the level of the committee all the institutions that fall under our purview we did necessary corrections,” he outlined.
Honourable Billay G. Tunkara, Majority Leader interfered saying the “business before us is to debate on the report of FPAC having interacted with the Ministry about the slight error that happened during the printing and also noting that the speech delivered by the Minister was factored in the corrected version and the soft copy presented to parliament has the corrected version.”
But Honourable Saho stressed that this document contains the lives of the Gambians, and the majority leader cannot say, it is a slight mistake “I am disappointed with his statements.”
He consistently asked the Majority Leader to sit down but he refused and forced Hon Saho to withdraw the statement, which caused a commotion at the Assembly.
The Speaker interjected saying Hon Saho doesn’t have the right to ask Billay to sit down. “You are the cause of the problem and I don’t like people who misbehave indefinitely as mature as you are. I have allowed you out of many just not to cause confusion,” Hon Speaker said.
However, he went on “if you talk and comment while attacking people, what do you expect that is why I made it clear that I am not creating a room for any debate.”
Hon Saho raised a motion but the Speaker consistently ignored him indicating that someone was shouting at the house. Saho still didn’t give up on his motion as far as the matter is concerned the matter got worse.
Meanwhile, he and other members got furious and walked out of the chambers saying they could not debate on a document that was not clear.
