By Omar Bah
The minister of information has said that the Barrow administration’s assertion that the country’s coffers were empty when they took over office “does not necessarily mean there was no money in the coffers.”
Speaking to journalists yesterday during his monthly press briefing, Demba Ali Jawo said the fact that the government says the coffers were empty does not mean there was no single butut.
“Of course there was money. The very fact that people were paid at the end of every month, it means that there was money somewhere. It was just an emphasis as to how dire the economic situation of the country was when the new government took over. That was the reason why we were talking about empty coffers. But that does not really mean that there was nothing absolutely in the coffers,” he said.
He continued: “It was not easy at the time to say exactly this is the amount of money because money was flowing in and out on a daily basis….But I am sure the ministry of finance would be able give the exact figures by the time the government was taking over.”
On the issue of the British PM’s calls for Commonwealth member countries to legalise same-sex marriage, Minister Jawo said as far as Gambia is concerned same-sex marriage is not a big issue.
“It is not definitely the way the former president was making it to be. We know we have our religious and traditional beliefs and some of things are not compatible with some of these advocacies about gay rights but honestly it is not a big problem in this country. It is not a problem that we are confronted with at this moment and I can assure you that we can take care of it,” he concluded.
