By Arret Jatta
The Minister of Local Government, Hamat Bah, has accused local councils of prioritising politics over service delivery to their electorates, saying this is why they’re underperforming.
Speaking at the government press conference at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara Conference Center Monday, Minister Bah dismissed accusations that central government does not support local councils most of which are controlled by main opposition UDP elected officials.
“Let me tell you that this government support local government than any other government.
The problem is, these councils are more political today than they are serving the people who elected them. They are into more of politics than delivering subsidies, dividends of democracy,” he said.
He accused the councils of making baseless allegations against the government, saying, they try to use the government as a scapegoat. “It is a baseless allegations, it’s not true. The public knows that they are collecting hundreds of millions on their behalf and they are not putting it into proper use, ” he alleged.
Addressing claims of government interference in local councils, Minister Bah adamantly denied this. He said: “That is not true. Let them give me one example of interference,” the ever combative Minster Bah said.
Relations between the central government and most of the councils, led by opposition politicians, have not been cordial. The opposition mayors and chairmen have accused the government of not supporting them, or in some cases even ‘sabotaging’ them for political reasons.
