Home building especially by Diaspora Gambians is about the only vibrant
sector of the otherwise moribund economy of our country. In large numbers
folks are either sprucing up old family homes or building in the emerging
neighborhoods of Kerr Serign, Kololi , Bijilo and so on. Over the years the
construction industry has evolved to a professional calibre with firms
configured to offer tailor made services to suit the needs of customers who
don't live in the Gambia . You can now hire consultants to oversee all of the
details stipulated in a contract and arrange payment plans with developers.In
a similar vein, a whole class of middlemen have emerged earning their living
by bringing willing buyers and sellers together. The apparent growth and
vibrancy of the construction industry is a clear testament to the
entrepreneurial nature of the Gambian people. It shows that in unimpeded
market driven transactions we have a great capacity to successfully build and
grow by competing for customers and constantly innovating to serve the
changing requirements of the market. This is healthy and the preferable way
forward.
       The major hindrance for even this promising sector is the latent abuse
of office by corrupt and indolent bureaucrats who have turned their offices
into shakedown dens. While you can negotiate a real estate transaction in
minutes, you must go to four different offices for various stamps and
signatures to effect a title transfer. Almost each of those offices operate
under very murky parameters that puts home buyers at the whims of some guy
who does his best to let it be known that he is in no hurry to expedite
appending a signature or putting a stamp on. Translation: pay a bribe and get
your papers processed or do it the rightway and wait indefinitely. Infact no
one can adequately explain why effecting a title transfer cannot be done in
one office from a single database within a jurisdiction.The most
disheartening thing is the fact that the governmental setup is so screwed up
that the average person who just wants to put a roof over his head is
essentially trapped in an extortion ring . Applying for utilities is a
similarly arduous and corruption infested labyrinth of paper pushing for
signatures and stamps. Those applications also typically must go through four
different offices with the threat of indefinite waits dangled as a whip to
extort bribes. In a way the utilities are far worse in that you are fleeced
throughout the process and once you are connected to the water main or power
grid, you can expect at best sporadic services. These corrupt government
paper pushers who have made careers out of shaking people down for doing jobs
they are paid to do are an intolerable hindrance to the efforts of individual
citizens in their quest to build communities. To those who can afford it, you
are better off generating your own water and electricity in your new homes
with generators, solar panels and hydro-pumps. It is also not hard to imagine
that if private Gambian entrepreneurs of integrity were running the utilities
as their businesses, we will all be better for it. The idea that a service
intensive business such as a utility can be effectively run by a multilayered
bureaucracy staffed by corrupt and sleazy people primarily interested in
stealing stretches credulity. Until we reach a point in which home buyers can
close deals and do all of their paper work in a single central office and
also have a similar procedure for utility applications, we will continue to
be at the tender mercy of cold-hearted bureaucrats wielding their pens of
extortion.
Karamba

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