By: Kemo Kanyi
The Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Seedy Keita, admitted that managing the country’s public enterprises for sustenance has been a challenge for the government of The Gambia.
Minister Keita explained on Coffee Time that The Gambia does not record satisfactory performance in the past, referencing the economic history of the country in terms of its public enterprise management.
He revealed that due to the struggling nature of the country’s public enterprises which, he said, has resulted in opportunity loss to the state, has been the reason why the government of The Gambia established the State-owned Enterprises Commission to put a “laser focus” on how these enterprises are managed.
“If you look at our public enterprise management as a country, we did not have a good track record given the number of public enterprises that have collapsed over the years, which has a huge potential economic loss to the country. Some of these enterprises were performing very well for the country’s economy,” the finance minister stated.
He recalled that the Gambia Produce Marketing Board (GPMB), Commercial Development Bank, Agricultural Development Bank, Livestock Marketing Bank, and the then Gambia Public Transport Cooperation, and many other public enterprises were performing their functions very well before they ran into insolvency.
He disclosed that GAMTEL/GAMCEL recently struggled to pay staff salaries, adding that the situation forced the government to bail the company out. The government, said minister Keita bailed out GAMTEL/GAMCEL for the past two months as regards staff salaries.