By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT
Gambia Participates has published a chart highlighting that the Gambia’s National Assembly “self-enriching D54.4 Million loan” could have provided 40 community boreholes and four standard health posts to 380,000 Gambians. Mr Marr Nyang, Executive Director of a Civil Society Organisation which focuses on Budget Advocacy and Fiscal Transparency says that the self-rewarding building loan “may be illegal” and is not in line with provision 112 of the Gambia’s 1997 Constitution.
Provision 122 (4) of the 1997 Constitution outlines that one of the responsibilities of Parliamentarians is that “all members shall … desist from any conduct by which they seek improperly to enrich themselves or alienate themselves from the people…”.
According to Mr Nyang “section 112 says that parliamentarians cannot use the authority to enrich themselves and these actions are geared to self-enrich themselves. It is not in the best interest of the people they represent. The people that they represent were never consulted.”
Communities Desperate for Clean Water & Health Care
Speaking on the reasons for the infographics, Mr Nyang explained that many National Assembly members (NAMs) “that voted in support of this loan scheme, their communities are in dire need of a health post, their communities are in dire need of a borehole.”
Recollecting the hardships that underprivileged Gambians endure he explained that “some of their constituents have to wake up at three am to go to the bush and then fetch water. Some will have to use a donkey cart as a means of transportation in order to get their women delivered and some of these women deliver on these donkey carts.”
Sharing concerns of the local communities they engaged, Mr Nyang highlights that heavy rainfall makes the dirt roads impossible to ply, meaning that nurses could not come to their aid. “They [nurses] don’t come so that means a whole month if someone is sick, they won’t have opportunity to get diagnosed unless you have the opportunity to take a car to go to the nearest health center.”
300,000 People could have benefitted from 40 Boreholes
Explaining how they calculated that D54.4 Million could purchase four Standard Health posts and 40 Boreholes Mr Nyang said that they “contacted contractors in the field, constructing boreholes and then we calculated the manpower and the capacity that it could actually cover. We gave them Sare Bojo as a sample, to estimate the cost of a borehole that can cater for 30,000 people and most of these communities are less.”
“So, with that, they gave us a quotation for a borehole for D600,000 that will cover 30,000 people. So, if you multiply that by 40 and then add the workmanship it will go up to D31 Million.” The cost of the 40 boreholes is summarised below.
- Drilling Borehole Cost = 40 x D600,000 = D24 Million
- Workmanship Cost = D6 Million
- Total Borehole Cost = D31 Million
According to the Gambia’s National Development Plan 2018 – 2021 (NDP) “there is a rising rural poverty and a growing gap between rural and urban Gambia with regards to access to health, education, and basic services.” In the urban areas, 32% of households live below the poverty line, meanwhile, in the rural areas more than double (69%) that percentage of Gambians live below the poverty line.
After winning the Presidency in December 2016, President Adama Barrow’s government pledged to improve the country’s access to safe drinking water from 90% to 100%. The NDP also pledged to improve access to sanitation facilities from 65% to 75% and to increase the proportion of households with a “place for handwashing with soap and water” from 25% to 50% in the rural areas.
Turning our attention to healthcare the NDP also aims to reduce the Gambia’s maternal mortality rate and to lighten the burden of communicable diseases. The NDP highlights that “The Gambia’s strong primary healthcare (PHC), which was a model for other countries has deteriorated over the past years and is no longer able to serve the population adequately”.
80,000 Gambians could have benefitted from four Health Posts
Speaking on the cost of a Standard Health Post Mr Nyang explained that they first contacted “the regional health director and asked them which communities are in dire need of a health post. We looked at Berending, Jarra Sukuta, Sare Bojo and Chargelli, these are communities that don’t have a health post.”
After consulting Civil Engineers and Parliamentarians, Gambia Participates received three different quotations. “Some said D3 Million, others said D4 Million and others said D5 Million. So, to have the standard one we went with the D5 Million”.
“To have four Health Posts you will need D20 Million, now you will need equipment. With D3 Million you can have equipment in these four health posts. So in total will make it D23 Million right. The number of people that will benefit from this will go up to 80,000. So, in total, you could impact the lives of 380,000.” The cost of the four Health Posts is summarised below.
- Health Post Cost = 4 x D5 Million = D20 Million
- Equipment Coast = D3 Million
- Total Health Post Cost = D23 Million
Looking at the 2021 Draft Budget Estimate it can be seen that this year the Government has appropriated D1.6 Billion from its Local Government Fund on Health. Out of this appropriation, only D5 Million is earmarked to be spent on Hospitals, Clinics and Health Facilities while another D19 Million was planned to be spent on the development of building relating to Basic Health Care Services.
Making Gambians see themselves in the Budget
In Mr Nyang’s opinion, Health Posts and Boreholes built in the same region would have “a multiplying effect because some of those that are going to benefit from the borehole are going to be benefiting from the health posts. So, the total estimation that we have done comes up to 380,000 people that could have actually benefitted from this” D54.4 Million NAM Building Loan.
“So, this is the reason why we wanted to decode the whole stuff and make it very important for the people to get to understand that this action is not a small action as we see it from the outside. We keep hearing billions and millions during the budget speeches, it’s too much for people to understand. It is our responsibility as a Civil Society Organisation for us to make the people see themselves in the budget.”
The second episode of this interview focuses on the procedure that NAMs followed to create a new budget entity and the Gambia’s 2016 Audit Report highlighting that D5.7 Million has not been recovered after the Government issued a D8 Million loan in 2014.
Gambian Parliamentarians denied 380,000 underprivileged Gambians access to healthcare and portable drinking water by allocating themselves a D54m loan scheme to build their houses pic.twitter.com/Y1Pm7cQaRJ
— Gambia Participates (@gmbparticipates) December 5, 2020