By: Arret Jatta
The Finance and Public Accounts Committee (FPAC), of the Gambia National Assembly, on Thursday rescheduled the Kerewan Area Council due to the average of their Board chairman.
The council was scheduled to appear for the presentation and consideration of their activity report and financial statement for the period 2020-2021, the engagement could not proceed because the chairman of the council was absent.
According to the schedule of the National Assembly committees, the council was supposed to appear yesterday. Still, Sainabou Matin Sonko, the chief executive officer (CEO), of the Kerewan Area Council said they were not aware that they were supposed to appear before the committee on Wednesday.
“We received the letter, but it was an oversight from my end. It was yesterday that it was called to my attention that we should appear before the committee and I was referred to the National Assembly CEO WhatsApp group chat to look at the Notification I confirmed that it was sent to the group on the 10th of Februarywas the time I arranged to get the team over here including the chairman unfortunately the chairman couldn’t make it here and he send his apology, “she told the committee.
She said her chairman got the information from her very late by then the Chairman was on his way to Basse for the Gambia Local Government Association(GALGAL) meeting which was later concealed.
Alagie S.Darboe, the Chairman of the committee said the engagement cannot proceed in the absence of the chairman.
“We noted that he is new in the system and perhaps he is not familiar with parliament procedures by that we will give home warning that anytime the parliament calls, priority should be given to the parliament,” he told the Kerewan Area Council officials.
Hon. Darboe stated that if he (the chairman) has any genuine issues he might not be able to make it to any given meeting that should be communicated to the committee.
“When the board or the council is not represented the meeting cannot proceed. We don’t want this situation to be repeated that’s why we are giving him a strong warning to always try to abide by the parliamentary call,” he stressed.
However, the committee agreed to reschedule the engagement to 26th February 2024, 12 noon for both the presentation and consideration for the period under review.
