By Haddy Touray
Essa Mbye Faal, leader of the All-People’s Party (APP)-Sobeyaa merger has observed that The Gambia is shackled by a culture of wasteful expenditures and mismanagement of public funds.
The former lead counsel of the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) made this observation in an interview with the anchor of the Coffee Time on West Coast Radio, Peter Gomez on Monday, December 30, 2024, where he described the President ‘Meet the People’s Tour’ as ‘MbumBaye’ (extravagance) festival meant to campaign for the President to entrench him in power at the detriment of poor and vulnerable taxpayers.
Responding to a question raised by Peter Gomez on whether taxpayers’ money is been utilized wisely, the leader of APP-Sobeyaa alliance responded that he did not think that Gambian taxpayers’ money is wisely spent by the government.
“What we have in The Gambia is a slice and bond economy, you tax and spend but we don’t spend wisely,” Faal opined.
“Instead of addressing the needs of the people, we are spending on those people at the top. The budget, even though the spin doctors are painting it as the best budget Gambia ever produced, I have never seen a government that goes on the offensive promoting the budget like is been done today simply because this budget is the worst budget ever produced by this country,” he added.
The former TRRC lead counsel continued to observe that The Gambia does not need to spend a hefty D100M on the travels of a President alone, noting that sponsoring over eighty (80) people to attend the United Nations General Assembly is another waste for a small country like The Gambia.
He stressed that spending huge sums of money to transport more than 80 people to UNGA was another wasteful spending for a country that depends on begging each year to balance its budget deficit
The APP-Sobeyaa leader recalled that The Gambia has served at the UN Security Council at a time when the nation was most needed in the world but has never witnessed the ferrying of such a huge delegation to attend the UNGA.
APP Sobeyaa leader further adduced that the Meet the peoples tour has now become a legalized waste that is given to the government, noting that in 2020, the Government budgeted millions for the tour but ended up spending D20million plus, in 2021, about D40million plus spent and in 2023, D10million was approved but the President end up spending about D61million of taxpayer’s money just to go round in the country.
Essa Mbye Faal described the Meet the People tour as a national ‘Mbum Baye’ festival that accords the President and his delegates to party taxpayers’ money for no good, arguing that the essence of the Meet the People’s tour is for the President to go round and discuss with the people on their concerns and how to address them.
“What we are seeing is simply a national ‘Mbum Baye’Festival, wherein they gather, slaughter cows and eat and launch a political campaign to further entrench themselves in power. That by itself is illegal because the constitution does not allow taxpayer money to be used for a political campaign,” APP-Sobeyaa leader argued.
Responding to a question about how he would have conducted the Meet The People’s Tour when he becomes President, Faal said it will be a period of soul-searching, period of consultation, and period to listen to the masses such that the policies of the state will be tuned around the needs of the people. He added that Meet The People’s Tour will no longer be a period of festivity during which money is being wastedand president escorted by a convoy of more than 80 vehicles and guards, spending taxpayers’ money unnecessarily.
According to him, the current form of Meet the People’s Tour is no longer a soul-searching event but rather a ‘Mbum Baye Festival’ that needs to stop, noting that what is currently happening is going on a campaign to sell the agenda of the President and further entrench him in power, which makes the tour illegal.
He bemoaned the poor state of Gambia’s hospitals, and poor education system coupled with massive failures of students, adding that Gambian youths no longer have opportunities other than going on the illegal backway journeys to Europe as well as subjecting Gambian workers to indignity and poverty.
According to him, the level of poverty has now risen to the stage where police officers and other Government workers are now taking bribes, adding that the $15 million spent on vehicles for the past OIC Summit depicts the wasteful spending of President Barrow compared to the Jammeh regime.
Among other things, the former TRRC lead counsel opined that if the government fails to pay at least D18,000 as an average pay for Gambians, then it is subjecting them to poverty, referencing that the salary of the President has been increased from D250,000 to D500,000 within a very short time while leaving thousands of other hardworking civil servants to wallow in poverty and hopelessness.
