By Omar Bah
The deputy leader of the Gambia Action Party Omar Beyai who backed President Barrow in this month’s election has advised him to appoint competent people in positions based on their expertise when he forms a new cabinet.
“I think he should consider reshuffling the cabinet even now as this will provide him with the opportunity to reassign responsibilities to people based on their expertise to bridge the gaps in performances and outputs,” Omar Beyai told The Standard.
He said this will enable the president to also carry out much needed restructuring and inject a fresh momentum into the system.
He added that the Gambian leader should also make fighting corruption as part of his top priorities.
“I would recommend he introduce a quarterly assessment of ministries where citizens will be given the opportunity to assess ministers’ performance to gauge whether they should continue serving in those positions. We can organise a public forum every six months were the public meet face to face with their ministers and the president to demand answers on issues they feel are not going right in the country,” he said.
Beyai, who abandoned his plans to form a political party, said the president would find it nearly impossible to accomplish his ambitious development programmes without fighting “corruption”.
“The implementation of the anti-corruption law must be expedited,” Beyai said.
Beyai added that the government should reintroduce the asset declaration by ministers and other top public officials and as well prosecute corrupt officials to counter the negative perception of rampant corruption in the civil service.
“Fighting corruption should be a national crusade. We should stop taking the issues of corruption with a vivid globe. Our government officials should be seen to be transparent with public resources.”
“Not only does corruption affect economic development in terms of economic efficiency and growth; it also affects equitable distribution of resources across the population, increasing income inequalities, undermining the effectiveness of social welfare programmes” he said.
