The quasi judicial body made this disclosure on Tuesday during a session of the National Assembly’s public accounts and public enterprises joint committee.
The executive secretary of ADRS, Penda Gibril Tommy, said her institution, which has two regional offices besides the headquarters in Banjul, has in 2013 registered a total of 148 complaints.
She added: “We had 45 cases in Banjul, 73 in Basse and 30 in Farafenni. While 31 cases were resolved in Banjul, 11 were withdrawn and 3 are pending. In Farafenni, 25 cases were resolved, and 5 were withdrawn. In Basse, 68 cases were resolved, 2 were withdrawn and 3 pending.”
Tommy revealed that Basse has registered an increase of 33 complaints in 2013, suggesting that the increase might be linked to issues of child maintenance and land and marriage disputes.
Meanwhile, the PAC/PEC has adopted both the activity report and financial statements of the ADRS. The committee heard from Tommy the challenges the secretariat is faced with.
She explained: “The secretariat relies heavily on external funding for all its project. This means that depending on the donor’s budget or priority intervention areas, some activities may not be carried out, even though they are vital to strengthening the ADR structure. The secretariat can only carry out limited sensitisation or advocacy programmes when the project approval is given, thus restricting the efforts of the secretariat.
“From 2008 to date, only one member of our staff has received assistance from the secretariat to partially fund an accounting course at the Management Development Institute. The secretariat needs to upgrade and refresh the skills of all staff periodically to improve service delivery and encourage staff in their development.”
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