By: Nyima Sillah
The Deputy Party Leader of The Gambia Action Party (GAP), Babucarr Bayo, has called on the government to establish an audit committee for the OIC Secretariat.
“According to Yankuba Dibba he said they have the expertise, they have the right, and financial structures they can be audited at any time. So, if that is the case, I am challenging the government to open up windows for audit sessions and on the OIC secretariat so that we can know how these monies were spent,” Bayo told The Voice following the recently concluded summit.
He opined that the monies spent might not be done in the right way or embezzled by individuals, adding for clarity and for the citizens to have confidence on the OIC secretariat then a commission must be establishedto dig into the OIC spending to clear off the qualms.
He explained that in one of Yankuba Dibba’s speeches before the summit, he stated that almost 100% of the inflow of funding that came into the OIC secretariat for the event planning was taxpayer’s money.
“This money comes directly from the government consolidated revenue fund. We know anywhere the government spends in terms of giving out resources it is followed by an audit session. As the summit ended I am challenging the government to set up an audit committee to investigate monies amounting to almost D500 million,” Bayo stated.
He reiterated that based on what Mr. Dibba said before the event, the money was spent only on the planning of events and nothing else because other projects were funded by other funds, saying that the planning of events exclusively was supported by the government fund which was from the taxpayer’s money.
Mr.Bayo contended that anytime the government spends taxpayers’ money audits are required so that it can be cleared, how people’s money is spent.