Culled from AllAfrica.  Folks, this is an insult to all Gambians and Famara
Jatta's response below is nothing but a pack of lies and deceit.  Who is
that dumb to tell Gambians that we don't have an economic crisis?  Only a
fraud will.

"There is no economic crisis in this country and newspaper should be careful
in the way they make headlines. Besides, our doors are open to all
journalists to clarify issues on the economy."

Well, to the idiot, a crisis is when everyone, including his lying self is
dead, I suppose.  Please read on.


'There is No Economic Crisis'

The Daily Observer (Banjul)

December 23, 2002
Posted to the web December 23, 2002

Alieu Badara Ceesay
Banjul

The secretary of state for Finance and Economic Affairs, Famara Jatta, has
blamed the press for negative reporting on the current issue.

"There is no economic crisis in this country and newspaper should be careful
in the way they make headlines. Besides, our doors are open to all
journalists to clarify issues on the economy," Mr Jatta said.

He made this declaration while responding to questions raised by Members of
the National Assembly last Friday.

Tax increases Mr Jatta dismissed claims that the new budget is formulated on
massive tax increases which might create a difficult situation for Gambians
and foreigners alike.

"The security that is provided for people to go on their daily business and
work cost the Government and that must be understood," he said.

He noted that the worry about alien's taxes are "baseless as everybody
should contribute to the development of the country. If aliens feel that
they want to go home, they can go, there is nothing wrong with that. In
fact, it's only The Gambia that is implementing the Ecowas protocols," he
said In the 1999 budget, he said, the price of fuel was reduced and
transport fares were never reduced and Government lost about D40 million.

Mr Jatta revealed that Government cannot afford to increase salaries of
civil servants every year but that the issue of allowance should be
advocated.

He said that the APRC Government cannot take responsibility of the high debt
of the country. "Most of the loans we are servicing now were contracted
since the days of the PPP regime," he said.

Mr Jatta also noted that The Gambia's debts are sustainable and are payable
in 30 to 40 years time.

Government, he said, has not lost sight of the productive sector as this has
been addressed in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) document of
The Gambia.

"We must have fiscal discipline and it is realised by Government that the
productive sector is the base to move the country forward," he said.

Mr Jatta also noted that Government will look into the plight of pensioners
with a view to increase their wages and that would be processed by a study
on the issue.




_________________________________________________________________
MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 3 months FREE*.
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus&xAPID=42&PS=47575&PI=7324&DI=7474&SU=
http://www.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/getmsg&HL=1216hotmailtaglines_virusprotection_3mf

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~