By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT The Gambia’s Auditor General (AG), Mr Karamba Touray told stakeholders at the launch of its Phase 1 Covid 19 Report that there is a general lack of accountability in almost all sectors of Government. The launching featured a series of Audit Reports published by the National Audit Office (NAO) including the much talked about D669 Million withdrawn in 2017 without approval. Speaking at the stakeholder’s dialogue held at the New Metzy Hotel on 21st April 2022 delegates questioned the AG on the implementation of the Audit Report Recommendations and holding individuals accountable for defrauding the State.…
Author: Yusef Taylor
Yusef Taylor
Yusef Taylor, commonly known as Flex Dan is an editor and practising journalist based in the Gambia with a keen interest in human rights, the economy and good governance among many others. He continues to break news on the economy, human rights violations and is highly engaged in security sector reforms, constitutional reform and the transition of the Gambia from dictatorship to a democracy, the NewGambia. Yusef has been working with Gainako as a media practitioner from 2015 to date. He has a degree in Civil Engineering with 5 years of Design Consultancy experience.
By Yusef Taylor and Alieu Ceesay A Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC) staff has suspected its former Information Technology (IT) specialist in a new fake trade licenses scandal, however, the KMC Councillor has failed to reveal the name of the suspected staff. Earlier this morning on 20th April 2022, KMC issued a press release raising the alarm about the issuance of fake trade licenses. This prompted our journalist to visit their offices to ask some questions regarding trade licenses. KMC has a licenses unit responsible for issuing licenses. According to the official KMC website, there are three types of licenses that…
By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT The Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE) released a statement noting that two exams have been postponed to July 2022. According to the statement “the reason for this development is to allow students affected by the Casamance crisis in Foni to settle down and catch up for the lost contact hours”. According to the infographic published by the Office of the Vice President and the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) at least 7,044 students have been affected by the Foni Crisis which escalated “on the 13th March, around 13:45 GMT”. According to the Government’s Rapid…
By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT Gambian Public Health and Environmental Officers called off a sit-down strike over unpaid allowances on Monday 11th April 2022 until the end of May 2022 when they have been promised to receive their allowances. The statement issued by the Association of Public and Environmental Health Officers (APEHOG) noted that “on the 6th of April, 2022, Public Health Officers across the country embark[ed] on a sit down [strike] for their exclusion of an allowance scheme created for staff of Ministry of Health”. On the 6th of April 2022, the Ministry of Health (MoH) posted on its Facebook…
By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT Gambian President Adama Barrow nominated Hon Fabakary Tombong Jatta and Hon Seedy Njie as Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Sixth Legislature shocking supporters of the Draft Constitution and stakeholders of the Truth Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC). The swearing-in ceremony for the sixth legislature took place at the New National Assembly Building on Thursday 14th April 2022 just days after the 9th April 2022 National Assembly elections in which some 53 National Assembly members (NAMs) were sworn in and another 5 nominated NAMs. The Majority Leader, Deputy Majority Leader and Chief Whip were all decided…
By Yusef Taylor Days before the recently concluded Parliamentary Elections the Centre for Policy, Research and Strategic Studies (CepRass) published a poll predicting that President Adama Barrow’s National People’s Party (NPP) would win sixteen (16) seats while former Vice President Ousainou Darboe’s United Democratic Party (UDP) would win thirteen (13) seats. Considering that the poll results were “inconclusive” on 10 predictions a total of 43 predictions were conclusively made. Comparing the elected members and the prediction it can be seen that 33 out of 43 predictions were accurate which translates to an accuracy rate of 77%. CepRass Predictions By Party…
By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT The Gambia’s Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has announced the results of the 9th April 2022 National Assembly Elections indicating that 33 new National Assembly Members (NAMs) have been elected and 20 incumbent NAMs have retained their seats. According to the results, President Adama Barrow’s National People’s Party (NPP) has won 18 seats while Ousainou Darboe’s United Democratic Party (UDP) has won 15 seats. Tourism Minister Hon Hamat Bah’s National Reconciliation Party (NRP) has retained 4 seats while Fabakary Tombong Jatta’s led Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) won 2 seats. Both NRP and APRC went…
By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT The Gambia’s National Assembly is composed of fifty-eight (58) National Assembly members of which fifty-three (53) are elected and five are nominated by the President. The current National Assembly is the fifth legislature and has six female National Assembly Members (NAMs) and one person with a disability. Coincidentally only one person with a disability is running in the 9th April 2022 Parliamentary Election. The lone person with a disability running is not backed by any party so Mr Lamin Manneh will be contesting in Sanneh Mentereng as an Independent Candidate. On Saturday 9th April 2022, nineteen…
By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and Gambian Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) launched the MoJ-CSO Platform during a three-day coordination workshop for representatives of both Government and CSO leaders starting on 5th April 2022. The three-day workshop provided an opportunity for Government and Civil Society stakeholders to plan and coordinate efforts toward the implementation of the Truth Reconciliation and Reparations Commission’s (TRRC) recommendations. The event was jointly organised by The Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (TANGO), the MoJ and the Global Initiative for Justice, Truth and Reconciliation (GIJTR) and took place at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara Conference…
By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has rebuffed claims that President Adama Barrow’s National Peoples Party’s (NPP) failure to hold a congress will invalidate over forty National Assembly candidates up for elections on Saturday 9th April 2022. Speaking at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara Conference Center on Wednesday 6th April 2022 at an Election Observer Briefing, IEC CEO Sambujang Njie responded to calls from two Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to invalidate the nominations of NPP Parliamentary candidates. On 4th April 2022, two Diaspora CSOs namely Right 2 Know (R2K) and the Gambia…