FOROYAA BURNING ISSUES NO: 3/2003 9 - 12 January, 2003 * Is The President Still To Retain Agriculture? * The Facts About The Tax Measures * Sidia's Reaction To The Budget Speech * Barrow Kunda Selects PDOIS Chairwoman * LETTERS: Focus On Gambia's Economic Situation - Separating The Grain From The Chaff ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Is The President Still To Retain Agriculture? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ No Meet The Farmers Tour For 2002 When the President decided to take the Agriculture portfolio, FROYAA indicated that such a position should be handled by one who can make frequent visits to meet the farmers. This is all the more necessary when the present trade season is taken into consideration. Poverty is growing in the provinces because of crop failure. There is need for an objective assessment of the immediate needs of the farmers for survival and ultimate need to prepare for the next farming season .It is the Department of State for Agriculture which must come up with the policies to help farmers to address both concerns. The constitution has established a Code of Conduct for the persons holding political and public office. Section 222 paragraph 15 asserts that: " The President shall undertake a nation-wide tour at least twice a year in order to familiarise himself or herself with current conditions and the effects of government policies." The President has not even undertaken one tour in 2002 to meet the farming community in particular. There is need to address these concerns. We are convinced that the President is the executive. None of the Departments of State would function without the President being informed during cabinet meetings. All Secretaries of State have shared responsibility for any programme of policy initiated by each and every Department of State. Each should assume responsibility that it can shoulder, otherwise inefficiency shall be the order of the day. The progress needs urgent attention. Will the president listen? The future will tell. __/ __/ __/ __/ __/ __/ __/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Facts About The Tax Measures ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The new revenue measures have become a subject of national debate. Some call it Anti-foreigner revenue measures. Others call it measures to scrape the back of the people. It is significant to help the people to truly know what to except. Those who are not from ECOWAS states who are 18 years or above should expect to pay D1500 for Alien Identification Card. They are to pay D800 dalasis for Residential Permit. Those who are citizens of ECOWAS states are required to pay D1000 for an Alien Identification Card. Since Mauritania is not part of ECOWAS, Mauritanians are required to pay D1500 for Alien Identification Card. As far as Residential Permits are concerned all non- Gambians of 18 years or above other than Senegalese, Mauritanian and Guineans are to pay D800. These collections are to be made by the Immigration Department. Advice There are Gambians who have husbands or wives who are Gambians just like the wife of the President. Such people may encourage their husbands or wives to register as citizens by marriage if they have been lawfully resident in The Gambia for 7 years or more. Non-Gambians who have been resident in the country for 15 years may apply to naturalize as citizens of the Gambia. Gambian Citizens Gambian Citizens should not promote any narrow nationalist sentiments. Just as non-Gambians are earning in the Gambia and sending money home, Gambians abroad are in fact among the biggest exporters of foreign exchange into the country. It is the government which has taken the decision. It is up to the government to listen or not to listen to the voices of those who are affected. Gambians should not think non-Gambians have no reason to complain. We should be sensitive to the plight of any human being. Non- Gambians have small capital in running businesses. If one has a capital of D3000 and has to pay D1800 for oneself and another D1800 for a wife it would be unrealistic to stay in the Gambia in the face of the declining dalasi. This may be the reason why some non Gambians are leaving . Some Concessions by Government The government should ensure that all differences in the payment of hospital fees and other services between Gambians and Non-Gambians are nullified as an incentive to prevent non-Gambians from feeling that they are being discriminated. The Other Tax Measures Taxes to be paid by tradespersons are yet to be fully assessed. The tradespersons should not accept to pay any taxes mentioned by the Secretary of State until paper assessment is made by the Central Revenue (Income Tax) Department as to which business are to be exempted from payment and which ones are to be put under category one, two or three. Foreigners will be given necessary information once it is received from the Central revenue Department after their assessments. Needless to say, persons with annual income not exceeding D7500 are exempted from income tax. __/ __/ __/ __/ __/ __/ __/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sidia's Reaction To The Budget Speech ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is a very important session. It is important because it is during this period that we are going to determine how much money we are going to collect from our people, and how much money was collected last year and how it was spent. The whole of this session is simply bout that. And what we said serious implication because this document, although it was produced by the Department of State for Finance, it is no longer the property of the Department of State for Finance. It is our common property because we have stamped it with our mark. We approved it. It is our estimates. So we have a responsibility. That is why what we said here has serious implications for ourselves. Mr. Speaker, I want to begin my intervention by making conference to paragraph 2 of fiscal discipline which is one of the chronic ailment. the lack of fiscal discipline is one of the chronic ailment affecting the economy of this country. That is why it is very important. For those of us who were in the public accounts committee under the last Assembly I know how much importance the Auditor general attaches to the fiscal discipline and some of the items which appeared in the budget expenditure accounts. The former Auditor General, when we were dealing with the report in 1998 abhors this and she insisted during her time that they must be closed in all departments. Those of us who were in the Public Accounts Committee must bear witness to that. She insisted that they should be closed wherever they existed and she has a reason for saying that. Honourable Speaker, during the whole life of the Assembly the Auditor General's report was submitted only once. It was because it was characterised by a back log of unaudited accounts. And from that report to date there is no audited account of this government put before this National Assembly. How do we make sure that accounts or the Finance; that we are approving here has been spent according to the provision of law. Fincial discipline is not simply limited to spending as it is provided. It must be characterised by respect of institutions and rules and regulations. I caution that the public account of this country has only been audited twice i.e. 1992 and 1998. From 1998 to date no audited account has been presented to this assembly about financial discipline. I think we here have a responsibility to make sure that the constitutional mandate is met annually and that the audited accounts of the Republic must be put before this National Assembly every year. That is the constitutional mandate but that has never been met. So what do we do? The reason for it being a mandate is that it is very important that we know that the money we are taking from our people is spent properly to provide required services. I have to emphasise fiscal discipline because it is at the core of the crisis of the economy. and is the responsibility of this National Assembly to ensure that it is observed because we have a constitutional mandate to ask for the audit report every year. It must come here. It must here because it is our responsibility to examine the resources of this Republic; how they are acquired and how they are spent. That is the responsibility of the National Assembly. I have said it under the first National Assembly until the 1998 Audit Report came and I am going to start saying it here again. When we were examining the estimate, we realised at one point that we were speculating because we don't have the actual estimates for 2002 and we still don't have them. We don't know them. So if the things we did raise were merely speculative, I think that also is crucially important. The Honourable Secretary knows that very well. The National Assembly as I said has heavy responsibilities. We see we cannot talk about accountability and transparency in a situation of the the nature I described. It is impossible to talk about transparency and accountability and these are songs here in this Assembly as well as outside this Assembly. And we all know that it is not so. Mr. Speaker, in talking about the need for investment into the productive base of the economy somebody said yes it should have taken off; but there is road construction, there is expansion of educational facilities. I conceive that good roads are conducive to economic development but they don't necessarily bring about the development of the productive base of an economy. The productive base of an economy cannot take off without investing into it and when we say this, they ask you for an alternative. I for one when I talk about the productive base of the economy, I think the current. Honourable Secretary of State of State understand what I am going to say. What I am going to say is not repetitive because what I had suggested before has not been taken although it was considered to be good but it had not appeared. Many of us had made such suggestions and they were not taken but you see we are here together searching for those solutions. But what made things difficult is that those solutions can hardly appear because in a certain way our hands are tied behind our backs. That is the reality otherwise we all know what must be done to free us from the situation. But unless we free our hands we cannot do what must free us from this situation. And to do that we must recognise to see the state as a sovereign Republic. It is a sovereign Republic that stands supreme before us. We must choose what is good for a Republic and we must assert that forcefully. We know that we cannot forge ahead economically without investing in the productive sector. Yes see we say the private sector must be the engine of growth. That is beautifully said but it cannot be done under the circumstances in which we are. Interest rates in the banks are high for the private sector. At this point, the speaker adjourned the Assembly until the following day to allow the member to continue according to the Standing Order. He therefore adjourned the Assembly till the following day. The Second day Groundnuts make huge profits to those who buy and sell to the international market. Why can't ourselves buy those nuts, resell them, make huge profits and take it back into our coffers. Why is that not possible. Some of the earnings that public enterprises have made according to the budget speech can be used to buy those nuts particularly this year where there isn't much instead of leaving it. We are looking for the generation of income and the more we generate revenue without taxing, the better we are placing our economy on a sound footing because those who are being taxed are not earning enough. Some farmer are going to find it terribly difficult to pay their rates and taxes this year. There is no doubt about that because they haven't harvested enough to survive, let a lone to pay rate and taxes. Of course they are going to pay by force even though they may not have food to eat but they have to pay their rates and taxes. That is the strategic situation. So it gives one the impression that the government has abdicated it's responsibilities by not establishing a public enterprise whose responsibility will be to buy these nuts and make huge profits for the country. It was happening before particularly during the colonial time. Huge profits has been made at one time. 20 years ago D10 million by the then GPMB and was saved outside. We know millions of that can be made. On Fisheries Gambian waters are full of sea food. I always cited an example under the first Republic when the Eurpoean offered the Gambia some D26 million to be allowed to fish in our waters for 3 years. Just imagine D26 million can be acquired in a year as far as these waters are concerned. Why can't we invest these huge profits that our public enterprises are making. We talked about young people skilled , unskilled, not employed. How many young people can work on a fishing vessel, one huge fishing vessel? Many! How many young people can work on the land where these fish is going to be processed? How many vesels of its type can that fishing vessel produce annually? Many! You see I said everybody knows these things I am just saying them but everybody knows it that these are some of the things we must go for in order to free ourselves once and for all from this debilitating economic situation. To be continued __/ __/ __/ __/ __/ __/ __/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Barrow Kunda Selects PDOIS Chairwoman ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Barrow Kunda Village Committee and the PDOIS Wuli Constituency Committee inaugurated the Chairpersonship of the Mrs. Kinty Sidibeh on 25th December 2002 in the form of a rally. The rally, which was marked by cultural dance and a football match in the evenings, was attended by thousands of party supporters throughout the Upper River Division. During the rally, which was done at night, was chaired by Mr. Mawdo Jatta who gave the floor to Mr. Suwaibou Touray. In his deliberation, Mr. Touray enumerated the problems of the people throughout the country. He cited the economic crisis facing the country and said this is why the people should be mindful when casting their votes. He also explained the depreciation of the Dalasi which he said is the main cause for the skyrocketing of prices of goods and services. Mr. Touray said he overheard the president himself saying that people should be ready to work to develop the country because nobody will come from the outside to develop it for us. But as he said there is a need for the productive base of the economy to be developed, which government is not ready to do and that is why the Gambia is importing every thing from the outside. He explained that the only way the dalasi can be made strong is for us to develop the agricultural base and link it to an industrial base so that most of the things that are produced here can be processed here. He said if that is done, our import bill will be lessoned and our export bill will go up. He said people outside who would want to buy our goods would first have to buy the dalasi which would make the dalasi strong. He said if that is done many Gambians can gain employment and income without struggling to go abroad to look for work and suffer in other countries said the government should not blame the people for the lack of progress but rather blame their policies for not being workable or viable. Mr. Touray also introduced the issue of the budget and the debt of the country but called on Honourable Sidia Jatta to clarify that to the people as well as what transpired at the last sitting of the National Assembly. Mr. Jatta in his turn emphasized the need for humility in leadership. He explained how arrogant the Pharaoh was as a leader; that he went as far as calling himself a God. He said the people also lacked understanding to the extent of accepting him as a God. He said, but today, everyone knows that Pharaoh cannot be a God. He said too you have leaders who are elected by your very selves who are pretending to be your kings "mansa" when it is you who pay them, feed them and even cloth them. He asked how can such people be king. He emphasized that people who are elected by people should be humble servants of the people and not lords. He also said any day the people of the Gambia understand that he Sidia would resign from political work and go and serve somewhere else. He lamented the fact that even Alkalos, Chiefs, are all kings in this country. He asked how a a king of kings can work for the people. He reiterated that these are the people who should work for you as your servants since it is you who fed and cloth them. He cited the salaries of the president which he said is d26,000 the Vice President's as d16,000, the Secretaries of State as D13,000, the members of the National Assembly as D7,000. he said people are paying them these fat salaries and allowances to work for them but those very people turn around to blame the people for laziness. Mr. Jatta said despite the suffering of the farmers, the government will not stop collecting taxes from them because it is those taxes which must be utilized for the benefit of the collective. He added that the objective of election is to select honest sincere and knowledgeable people who would utilize those taxes for the collective good. He adviced not to insult each other but speak to convince each other without sentiments. He said for them in the PDOIS, if they fail to deliver, the people are given all the freedom to remove them and replace them with people who they feel can deliver. He told them "you are free! Don't you know still now? On rural electrification, Mr. Jatta said the loan is taken a long time now but still now the government has not taken any practical steps towards the project and as he said, you the people must pay the loan. He revealed that the country is indebted to the tune of D13,000 million and that means that even a small child has a debt of about D13,000 dalasis. He said no country be developed through loans alone. He said 95% of the development budget is to be financed through loans or grants (gifts). At this stage, the floor was open to whoever wants to contribute irrespective of party affiliation and or question. A queation was raised as to the Free education for Girls. Mr. Suwaibou Touray responded that the constitution of the country stipulates that there should be Free Education for both boys and girls but this is not possible because of constraints in the economy. He said outside agencies including the united Nations agencies have a program that is friendly to girls education but in collaboration with home governments. He said but what happens is that governments like ours just utilise it as their own and use it for propaganda purposes. He mentioned UNICEF's efforts in this endeavour. He said if it is a purely government sponsored initiative, it would reflect in the estimate or in the budget which he said is not the case. The newly elected PDOIS Chairwoman, Mrs. Kinty Sidibeh thanked everyone for the trust they have in her and emphasized that they the women of the Gambia have gone through and are going through many hardships. She said what must be understood by all the women is that politics is all about nation building and about money making. She said they in PDOIS are not after anyone's butut but that what they are interested in is to safeguard the future of their children even if they are going to experience suffering at the moment. She assured the people that as the chairwoman of PDOIS in Barow Kunda they should be rest assured that no amount of influence, bribery, threat, blackmail or intimidation can shake her in her position. After Barrow Kunda rally, Mr. Jatta made a familiaristion tour in Wuli and Sandu Constituencies. During the tour, he visited an on going rice project in Sandu Changhally funded by EU. The project is called (W.S.D.A). Wuli- Sandu Development Aid. The project coordinator Mr. Kebba Sillah of Wuli Linbambullu under scored the importance of the project, noting that the project will go a long way in assisting the farmers to be self sufficient in food production. He said we should farm both during rainy and dry seasons, If we want to eradicate hunger in this country once and for all. According to Sillah, the project is aimed to include Taibatu but at the moment they are doing feasibility studies to see how best they can have a successful project for the community. Sillah said for the Changhally project the EU contributed D20,000.00 for the starting and the community contributed D5,000.00. He said they have a similar project in Limbambulu Bambo for fruits (orchard) and vegetables. "Let me make one thing clear. We are an NGO, we are not supporting any political party but we come to assist the farmer." He said. From Changhally Honourable Jatta went to Sandu Kunwoku were he had a meeting with the villagers, organized by the villagers themselves. Responding to a question asked by Lamin Kemo Touray why commissioner Daba Marena used the police to insist that the groundnut should not be sold at the lumo, Mr. Jatta said that government policy advocates liberalized economy and this means every Gambian is free to sell at any market of ones choices whether inside or outside the Gambia; and likewise every Gambia is free to import from anywhere in the world. That for any Civil Servant to use the media and advocate the contrary illegal and can create misunderstanding between two countries. Also in Sandu Kwonku, Mr. Jatta disclosed that a president who is paid D26,000, should not be going round during political campaigns dishing out tens and hundreds of thousands of dalasis to the people; that people should question such behaviours and should also know that such monies come from the national coffers. Several people spoke at the meeting including Abdoulie Danso, Ismaila Touray, Bakary Camara and many others. __/ __/ __/ __/ __/ __/ __/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Focus On Gambia's Economic Situation Separating The Grain From The Chaff ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dear Editor, I have read your special issue where you have spoken to many people as well as our politicians, both opposition and the ruling party. Even though I have read all the issue on what is said about the economy, it would be better to analyze what has been said by the different political parties and the people spoken to, with a view to clarify certain points. Thank you in advance. President Jammeh's New Years Message I urge all Gambians to implement the hard adage of "no free lunch" towards accelerated socio-economic development. Gambians, in all fields of discipline and work, must take a critical look at the situations confronting us today, and must in this sense, resolve to work harder. We must move away from the sort of laissez-faire attitude which is more characteristic of our youths as they constitute the greatest source of vigour, innovation, and hard wok, and thereby form the jewel in the supportive of their development through numerous schemes that seek to inculcate in our youths self-discipline, patriotism, entrepreneurship, and a true sense of responsibility. However, it is rather sad that many still cling to laziness, living from one day to the other and end up sitting down doing nothing. Gambians should endeavour to do things for themselves and avoid high dependency on social connections and outsiders to do things for us. In order to do this, Gambians must go all out to acquire skills; skills that can be used resourcefully to earn them a living, and to free them from the bondage of self-imprisonment and non-productiveness that many of our people find themselves in. Together we will make a difference for there can be no meaningful development without an enhanced pool of the most important resources. Together, we will also overcome all threats of marginalisation and become active participants and beneficiaries of globalisation. Darboe - UDP It takes a real restructuring to salvage the country and the economy and the only way forward is a genuine political will. For this to succeed, it is necessary to set aside arrogance, segregation of opponents and targeting individuals who express their free opinion about current national issues and concerns. In face of the political and economic decline in the country, the various opinion leaders - professional bodies, trade unions and religious elders - therefore, should all come together and take a special interest in matters affecting the welfare and well being of the people of this country. The current government should organise and support a national conference so that the present situation and policies can be reexamined and solutions to our present predicament found. Mr. Omar A. Jallow - PPP On the way forward in such a situation, Mr. Omar Jallow said that since we are faced with a national economic crisis, there is the need for the government to call for a national conference where all stakeholders will be invited to carve the new way forward and when this is not possible, the government should accept that it has failed the Gambian people and resign for fresh elections to take place. Mr. Dulo Bah - NRP Our dalasi is possibly getting dead, so this is the problem. Now if you are to import those business tycoons they always request foreign exchange. What actually they should have done was to use the dalasi to import through the Central Bank, they can arrange with the Central bank to do that. If you want to import you go to the Central Bank they give you what you want to import, that at least can help the dalasi. That is the only thing we can do to get the dalasi on its feet. The solution to this problem is what we have been saying all along; that at least we should all come together as a nation. A national conference need to be called by the president so that everybody come on board. You have that panel discussion on TV about the depreciation of the dalasi and the way forward, did you see any opposition party member among them, why? One, let them dissolve the management of the Central Bank. Let them do that. They should bring to cabinet able technocrats who have the technical know- how to manage the affairs of this country. You cannot pick any person you feel like to bring to cabinet. Halifa Sallah - PDOIS The Way Forward PDOIS has long reflected the trend in the world. All along it has indicated that while the trend in the world is leaving everything to market forces it would soon be realized that no government can rely on taxes alone to deliver social and general welfare. As businesses collapse one demands tax holidays to be competitive, government must run into deficits. The only government which can cope with market forces is one which can promote a productive sector which can compete with the private and formal sector and thus pushed each to develop according to its capacity to promote general prosperity. This can only be done by a government whose leaders are not in for self enrichment. SoS Famara Jatta - Finance On whether he thinks that with the type of private sector we have in the Gambia, they can actually bring about any meaningful development in the country, the SoS said if private sector is said to be the engine of growth it is not the type of private sector that is in place here. Mr. Jatta lamented that the type of individual enterprises are only interested in the buying and selling of ready made imported goods and not for them to come together to form credible companies and invest as productive enterprises. Finally on the way forward, SoS Jatta said there has to be real economic discipline in order to have a positive growth of 6% envisaged in the 2003 budget. He said this is why the government has introduced cash budget system in order to maximize the revenue flow in order to be able to generate funds to invest in the productive sector. Momodou Cham Momodou Cham Secretary General of the Welders' Association said the economy had done so bad in 2002; that no price is predictable. Mr. Cham said if one prepares a budget today the next day you are told different prices. He submitted that this had affected all walks of life leading to hardship on the living condition of the people Mr. Cham Challenged the state that the way forward is for the state to rely on local products. He vowed that all materials made up of metal and wood can be produced here except for motorcars, spares and other engine items. He finally submitted that cost wise, it is the local products which will be cheaper and would mean real economic discipline to the state than imported ones. He showed examples of hospital ward operation beds and oil milling machines locally produced as some elements of the type of the talents in the Gambia. He called on all skilled people in the country to come together and form associations. The issue here is that our country is now undergoing economic crisis and our people are becoming poorer and poorer. Now to put the Gambia under a better focus, we need to really look at the policies of the government of the government of the Gambia to see if those policies are viable enough for us to eradicate poverty or are they in fact policies that instead aggravated poverty in our society. What must be understood is the fact that our country is terribly indebted to the international financial institutions to the tune of over 13 billion dalasis. That is too much for a small, poor and tiny population like ours. This is indeed a big burden and our creditors' objective is to make us pay more to them than what they give us. And this would not be paid in dalasis but in dollars. Now what the creditors have done is to condition us in different ways to adopt a policy or not to adopt a particular policy so that maximum effort can be made to collect as much revenue from us as possible so as to repay what is projected yearly or what is due for repayment yearly. Now since 1985, different so-called economic recovery programs were initiated by the IMF and the World Bank but these programs are all aimed at one thing and that is to squeeze as much revenue from the Gambian people as practically possible in order to pay debts. This is why the PDOIS dubbed it as "Economic Retrogression Programs." Now so much criticism has been levied on the IMF and World Bank Programs which made to yield at least by face value to change their approach and the new focus is on Development Cooperation on what they called accelerated Poverty Reduction which they say is their Central challenge, as at now. In this case, they said they have given our government to develop national programs which should be more responsive to the need of the poor. They also said programs and procedures of international development agencies and other lenders need to reinforce country-led efforts to reduce poverty. So our country is categorized as Least Developed Heavily Indebted Poor Country and therefore would receive what are termed as concessional assistance i.e. (grants and subsidized loans) from the IMF and the World Bank as well as debt relief provided under the (Enhanced HIPC initiative). Interestingly enough, despite the changes in programs, adjustment measures continued and conditionalities also continued side by side with these stringent measures. And it is precisely these conditions which bar our government from investing in the productive base of our economy. As long as we neglect investment in the productive base, either as private people or collectively as a government we shall continue to depend on outside commodities which will of course continue to erode or depreciate the value of our currency, as well as the lack of job creation for the poor thereby eroding whatever so-called gains the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper may have made for the poor. Only that is the ultimate solution. __/ __/ __/ __/ __/ __/ __/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: FOROYAA (Freedom) NO: 3/2003 9 - 12 January, 2003 ISSN: 0796- 08573 Address: FOROYAA, P.O.Box 2306, Serrekunda, The Gambia, West Africa Telephone: (220) 393177 Fax: (220) 393177 Email address: [log in to unmask] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 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] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~