*As Gambia President Freezes Foreign Trips To Reduce Public Spending, will President Bio Take a leaf From Adama Barrow?*
*By Kelvin Jay*
In a bid to reduce public spending and to restore economic stability in the Republic of Gambia, the President of Gambia, His Excellency President Adama Barrow, has on 19th August,2023 signed an ‘Executive order’ suspending foreign Trips of all Government officials including himself.
Acting on Authority vested on him by Section 76(1) of the 1997 constitution of Gambia and conscious of the need to curb Government expenditures, President Barrow “suspends all overseas Travels by the President, Vice President, Cabinet Ministers, Senior Government officials, Civil Servants and employees across Government institutions and agencies”. Exempted from this order are travels to statutory meetings where the Gambia’s Participation is mandatory and foreign Trips fully funded by external sources”, the Presidential Spokesman, Ebrima Sankareh said in a statement.
This measure had received thunderous applause by many Gambians especially when the country is facing serious economic crisis as inflation reached 11% according to the World Bank Report.
Gambia is a continental Africa’s smallest country with just over two million inhabitants and was ranked 174th out of 191 on the UN Human Development index, which combines Health, Education and Standard of living criteria.
More than a fifth of the country’s population lives on less than two dollars a day, according to the World Bank report.
However, an international Media analyst who has been keenly following the economic trend in Gambia described this measure as significantly resolute aiming at addressing the prevailing crisis in Gambia. “This move is significantly resolute as it could help to restore Economic stability and contributing to making the Gambia Economy stay afloat”, he added, further taking into cognizant the huge amount of money the country has been spending on overseas travels of Government officials which has caused more pressure on the country’s budget.
Meanwhile, since that Executive order had been issued, many SierraLeoneans are calling on President Bio to follow suit and take a leaf from the former especially when the country is also facing excruciating hardship as inflation become the order of the day coupled with the lack of donor funds and the sharp decline in Government revenue generation.
Report, however, indicates that the Country’s Revenue Authority, NRA, has unable to meet its revenue target in the past 3 months and as a result of that, the Bank of Sierra Leone had to loan the Government to pay salaries for the month of October.
In the midst of this economic doldrum, President Bio has been busy making frequent overseas trips under the guise of wooing investors, but the crux of the reality is that in all of the President Overseas Trips; he has unable to bring home tangible investment other than a ‘Tapalapa Factory’ which is yet to be in full swing.
President Bio has become known rather unflatteringly as the “flying President’’ that has travelled more than all the Presidents the country has ever produced.
It is an open secret that the Government of President Bio is presently running out of cash, yet, they want to champion their development programmes at all cost.
The Government is busy searching for avenues to get money to take care of their development programmes in the absence of donor funds.
One of the strategies they have deviced is to remove subsidies on all essential commodities without looking at the implication such decision will have on the poor masses.
The Government has resolved to increase taxes on all essential commodities including imported rice, cement and iron rod as a way to get money and balance the equation.
The Policymakers at the Ministry of Finance have brainstormed the removal of subsidies on all essential commodities as a step in the right direction and have presented a proposals for the restoration of duty and taxes on imported rice 5%; iron rod 10%, cement 20% and cooking gas 5%.
(C)*Voice of Salone Newspaper 10/11/2023*
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