By Tabora Bojang
The governor of the Central Bank has defended the bank’s decision to fund an overseas training trip for National Assembly Members and members of the Finance and Public Accounts Committee to Ghana dismissing concerns that funding such a trip may hamper lawmakers’ oversight function.
The bank fully funded a two-week capacity building trip to Accra for over a dozen of lawmakers which critics said was a conflict of interest from an institution NAMs are legally mandated to scrutinise. According to the reports, each NAM was allegedly paid about D450,000 including per diems and travel expenses.
Asked at Thursday’s Monetary Policy Committee press conference why the bank sponsored the trip, Governor Buah Saidy said his institution acted as part of its corporate social responsibility after noticing some capacity gaps in the NAMs parliamentary oversight duties during their engagements with them.
He argued that critics insinuating that the CBG funding such a trip may compromise lawmakers are in fact suggestions that lawmakers are “not independent” and may be influenced. He dismissed these suggestions stating that NAMs are responsible people who take an oath to execute their job without fear or favour.
“The CBG under our corporate social responsibility assists different sectors of government agencies, institutions and communities. This trip is part of that corporate social responsibility and it should be perceived as a positive step by all Gambians. FPAC is there to evaluate the economic and financial performance of different sectors of the government but most of the NAMs are politicians and so most of them don’t have that capacity on these financial matters because their area of specialisation is different. And to evaluate somebody’s performance you have to have the basic background of what you are holding him or her responsible for. So we saw it necessary to augment their capacity, so that they can have the skills, techniques and knowledge of holding public officials accountable. We are not bribing anybody in the National Assembly or FPAC. We are doing ethical services to ensure Gambians get value for money by augmenting the capacity of FPAC to hold all public servants accountable. We are complying with all laws of The Gambia,” he asserted.
According to him, the training conducted for NAMs on economic and financial management is not available in the country.
