By Edrissa Jallow
The Commission on Political Debates (CPD) with the support of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) held its second debate ahead of the Parliamentary Elections scheduled for 9th April 2022 at Ndow’s Comprehensive School Hall on Saturday 26th March 2022. The debate provided an opportunity for candidates contesting for the Serekunda West Parliamentary seat to present their ideas on how to strengthen Parliament’s oversight functions and combat corruption.
Attendance was a tale of two halves with three out of six candidates attending the debate and three candidates failing to grace the podium. The candidates that honoured the invitation are; Ms Nenneh Freda Gomez of the Citizens’ Alliance (CA), Ms Fatou Sowe of the People Democratic Organization for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS) and incumbent, Hon. Madi Ceesay of the United Democratic Party (UDP).
Candidates who failed to honour the invitation are; Momodou Jane of Gambia Democratic Congress (GDC), Momodou Lamin Sanneh Independent Candidate and Mustapha Lowe of the National People’s Party (NPP) who have announced their policy not to participate in political debates. However, two Parliamentarians from the NPP have graced the National Assembly Elections Debate at QTV. According to Hon Saikouba Jarju of Busumbala Constituency, the policy does not apply to candidates who are incumbent and have achievements to present.
Moderator Question from Fatoumatta Ceesay: During the debate, the moderator asked each candidate to present any “other financial accountability measures” which they could adopt with fellow parliamentarians to “scrutinize government spending and by extension highlighting ways, corruption and publicly funding expenditures in this country?”
Ms Fatou Sowe of PDOIS
First to respond was Ms Fatou Sowe of the PDOIS who noted that NAMs should be more involved in the development of the budget in order to pass a more realistic budget “and not what they [as individual Parliamentarians] only feel like bringing to the National Assembly”. This should be followed with public scrutiny.
“We need to work together on the budget” noted Ms Sowe, “at the end of the day that is how we can work and monitor it and then see that this was what we said, this was what we budgeted for and now this is what has been done”. According to Ms Sowe “if it is done on the right way then we are progressing but if it is not done on the right way then we need to find a solution for that”.
On the issue of corruption, Ms Sowe believes there are laws on corruption that needs to be adhered to “because if we make laws and it is not been use it has no use then. Laws need to be regulated we need to regulate all laws and then make sure anybody who goes off the law we put you on the right track.”
Incumbent Hon Madi Ceesay of UDP
The incumbent for Serekunda West Constituency, Hon Madi Ceesay of the UDP stated that “there are loose taps where we have our national resources that leak”. Hon Ceesay says leakages during the collection of tax are a result of transactions done through exchange of hands which he said: “that’s what should disappear now”.
“There should be no money transaction through hands, we should all be paying through accounts, that way we will be able to control and close a lot of gaps where money leaks to private pockets,” said Hon Ceesay.
According to Hon Ceesay, there is an excess of corruption in the Gambia and one way to address this is for Parliament to progress “the Anti-Corruption Bill to move from a Bill to an Act so it becomes a law that would help to control our scrutiny, or otherwise lots of the Millions of Gambian tax payer’s money will go to private pockets.”
Ms Nenneh Freda Gomez of Citizens’ Alliance
Ms Neneh Freda Gomez of the CA explained that it all starts with the electorates electing “competent people into the National Assembly”. After “that is done, I will be one of the people that will steer a discussion around the debt ceiling.”
Another initiative Ms Gomez presented was “to ensure that the Anti-Corruption Bill is passed into parliament. If the laws are in place, we need to ensure that we effectively put it into place and execute it and implement”.
“The laws are there we need to implement them and ensure that the right people are put in place that can hold anybody to account without fear or favour or being scared or afraid,” said the CA Spokesperson. In her view the Anti-Corruption Bill is crucial and it should be passed as soon as possible to combat corruption effectively.