By Amadou Jadama
The chairman of the Brikama Area Council, Yankuba Darboe, on Thursday disbursed D28 million to 28 elected councillors as ward development funds in West Coast Region.
Last year, Chairman Darboe made similar disbursement amounting to D14 million.
Presenting the funds to the councillors, Chairman Darboe said: “Last year during my speech, our population which was based on the 2013 population and housing census report the Gambia, accounted for 37 percent of the 1.8 million (1,882,450) total population of The Gambia. Then, our region was recorded to have 699,704 inhabitants with an annual growth rate of 6.12 percent.”
He added that now, based on the August 2024 population and housing census report, his region accounts for 47.5 percent of the population of The Gambia with almost 1.2 million (1151,128) out of the 2.4 million(2,422,712) of the total population of The Gambia.”
“Thus our region is considered the most rapidly urbanising local government area in the country. This rapid increase in population comes with many challenges for the region, such as waste management and sanitation, high population density, overcrowding, inadequate infrastructure and services, lack of affordable housing and slum creation, pollution and environmental degradation and flooding and water problems, “he said.
BAC Chairman further revealed that to mitigating these challenges, they initiated the ward development funds for the 28 wards of their region, in order to enable their council register development projects in each ward of their region annually.”
According to the chairman, this will be done through the engagement of the ward development committee, who are best positioned to understand and identify the priority development needs of their wards. He added that this decentralised and participatory approach ensures that communities are directly involved in the decision-making, execution and maintenance of their projects.
Chairman Darboe further stated that such a participatory model, fosters a sense of ownership among the people, which is crucial for the sustainability of the projects.
He added that the decentralisation model further ensures that every ward in the region receives a fair share of the region’s limited resources and revenues mobilised annually.
“It was towards these goals that we registered the disbursement of D14 million last year on 28th February, 2024, to the 28 wards of our region, with each ward receiving D500,000. This disbursement has resulted in the implementation of 22 boreholes in the region, enabling 22 communities to have access to clean drinkable water; eight markets sheds were built for nine communities; and three communities were elected to the national electricity grid,” he explained.
Chairman Darboe continued: “This year, marking the second anniversary of this great development initiative for our region under my leadership, we are delighted to announce that this year’s disbursement will be D28 million with each ward receiving or benefiting D1 million. This is a significant progress for the development and empowerment of our people and region.”
He reiterated that the funds were not grants, subventions or donations received from benevolent donor nations or organisations but come directly from the tax revenues received from the tax payers of the region.
“It is not the first or second time that this council has been receiving such revenues from you, but it is unfortunate to state that this is only the second time this kind of funds are being ploughed back to you the people of this region for development. This is because, as I emphasised last year, this could not have been possible, if we have not dedicated and committed ourselves to fighting and ending corruption at this council. When we came into office in June 2023, less than two years ago, we found BAC highly indebted to almost all the banks we were banking with. The institution was running on a deficit of D10 million with the banks not to mention other entities and other liabilities,” he said.
Darboe further charged that BAC was so much indebted that at one point, between 2019 and 2022, it had to depend on a private construction company to pay for it Nawec utility metres.
“I stand before you today, I want to report that the central government has not been providing any development subventions to this council since 2023, and have not even been paying their central government property rates nether their geology contributions to our region. With the support of you the people of our region, we are progressing and registering development in our region. We inherited a council that was facing many of the challenges expounded earlier, and crawling on its knees. We had to muster the courage to confront the cancer of corruption that was destroying BAC head on and expose its culprits. We took the necessary actions and sought the assistance of the central government, but instead of giving us the assistance, we were vilified and victimised, “he stated.
He added: “We would not have created employment for 264 young people of our region who are now working with this council in the services of our people. We would not have further been able to provide scholarships to 300 students last year and we hope to increase to number to 600 this year…
“Last year, I admonished our village development committees receiving the funds disbursed to ensure that they utilise them as proposed. Today, I am happy to report that a great majority of them have indeed adhered to the agreement. For those whose projects are yet to be completed, the funds will only become available once your projects are completed,” he said.
Chairman Darboe acknowledged the support and compliance of the people of the region in paying their rates, licences and taxes, saying they are the heartbeat of the council because without them, it would not survive.
He exhorted them to continue to support the council to ensure that they eradicate corruption and overcome the many daunting challenges facing it.
