By: Haddy Touray
International consultant Dr. Ousman Gagigo has insisted that the delay in the planned increment of civil servants’ salaries has nothing to do with “insufficient” revenue as reportedly claimed by the Minister of PublicService, Administrative Reforms, Policy Coordination and Delivery, Baboucarr Bouy, in the news.
Minister Bouy was recently quoted by the news media as saying that the planned salary increase for civil servants was delayed due to insufficient revenue.
However, Dr. Gagigo contended that the reason that Minister Bouy advanced for the delay was misleading and that the minister should have known better.
“Let me start out by saying that Minister Bouy has been a well-respected civil servant. However, any individual who willingly joins a government with the poor track record of the AdamaBarrow regime has willingly exposed themselves to reputational risk. If Minister Bouy is going to stand before the Gambian public to give a reason for not increasing the salary of public servants, he owes the public valid reasons, both for the sake of truth and for his reputation,” stated Dr. Gagigo in an opinion piece shared with this medium.
According to him, no government is able to finance every item it wants. He added:“Budget constraints are non-negotiable facts of life even for developed countries, much more a developing country like ours. However, with the knowledge of such alimitation, it is even more paramount that the government is diligent and selective about how the country’s limited precious resources are allocated. After all, misallocation of resources has tremendous opportunity cost.
“When the government decides to embark on carrying out an activity, first of all, it needed to decide whether the activity is worthwhile. And among the set of activities to be implemented, it needs to prioritize them by order of importance. The justification of salary increment for civil servants today is clear-cut. A well-paid and compensated workforce, in addition to being well selected, is absolutely essential to state capacity, andtherefore critical for effective and efficient service delivery by the government.”
He opined that for a senior government official to stand before the public and claim that salary increment is delayed due to insufficient revenue is simply an attempt to pull wool over people’s eyes.
“It would effectively be saying to the Gambian people that we cannot afford any salary increase because we are a poor country.Would that be a valid argument today given the reality we live in when the same government is financing far less important and counter-productive activities?” said Dr. Gagigo.
“The reality is that the government has managed to spend significant amounts of resources on a range of items recently. What Minister Bouy and the rest of the Barrow administration are effectively telling the Gambian people is that those items that have been financed, in spite of the state of the country’s revenue collections, are more important than increasing the salary of civil servants,” he added.
According to him, just a few months ago, this government spent more than D40 million to pay media houses for positive coverage.
“In preparing for the OIC conference, this government spent an exorbitant amount in buying luxury vehicles for a two-day event. The 2024 budget showed almost D2 billion allocated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a lot of which went into maintaining embassies that that of little value to the country, and the continual inflation of our foreign service workforce by individuals no serious government should nominate to represent them abroad. And the budget allocation to the State House is bloated beyond any reasonable justification. One could go on and on,” stated Dr. Gagigo.
