The Government of The Gambia has announced that efforts are being made to recover an amount of $52, 837, 514 from two Swiss nationals.
Newspaper reports have it that This amount is to be recovered from Mr Illaja Reymond and Martin Keller who have been identified as close associates of Yahya Jammeh who have defrauded the Gambian people of this huge amount of money.
In addition to these two individuals, some other former public officials in the Jammeh administration have also been ordered to pay various amounts of money within thirty days of the publication of the Government White Paper on the Janneh Commission report.
The issue however may potentially be mired in a lack of total transparency if the activities of the past government in this area are anything to go by.
former President Yahya Jammeh overthrew the government of Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, he claimed that that government was corrupt to the core and therefore set up a similar commission to investigate their financial activities.
After this commission did its work, a lot of money and other assets were recovered from former government employees and many properties confiscated.
But there was virtually no accountability or transparency and as a result those monies and other properties never went back to public coffers.
The question here is this: has the Barrow government made plans to ensure that those monies which may be recovered from all those indicted in the Janneh Commission are properly accounted for and in a transparent manner?
If there are no mechanisms to bring about this, then the whole venture will be an exercise in futility as it will not benefit the Gambian people.
