By Tabora Bojang
Local Government Minister Hamat Bah has taken a swipe at local government councils for lacking what he called “means to venture into revenue generating activities.”
Speaking at the National Assembly during question time yesterday, Hamat said the councils don’t have any means of generating money. “Rather, they sit and talk about politics. Yes, you can talk about politics but when you get elected into office you should deliver. And this is not specific to any single council. I am only saying when you talk until you get elected, please go and deliver to the people. It is no longer business as usual,” Mr Bah said.
He added that everywhere in the world people are becoming more innovative and more aware and the councils must go extra mile. “If they ask us for land to make money, we will give them land to build houses but they will not do that. They would rather be on social media, talking about the 2026 presidential election, and who will be a candidate and who will not be a candidate, who will be this and that. We need to tell these councils to wake up and move on and make sure they do their job,” the minister said.
However, the lawmakers then called Minister Bah to respond to complaints by the councils that most of their revenue sources are handed over to the central government institutions such as NRA, GT Board and GLMA, depriving them of needed revenue to provide services. They also tasked him to respond to allegations about the reluctance of the government to pay 25 percent of council development budget.
Minister Bah replied: “Government is conscious of its legal obligation to annually provide 25 percent of councils development budgets as subvention to councils. However, I must admit that while the provisions of the 25 percent have not been forthcoming, the government has provided D4 million to each council for the 2024 fiscal year.”
He explained that the non-provision of the said 25 percent by the government could be attributed to the “disparity in budget calendars between the national budget and that of the councils, which start from October to December by which time the national budget has already been finalized and awaiting execution in the ensuing fiscal year.”
According to the minister, the government intends to address this matter by revising the local government finance and accounting manual of 2009.
Regarding the erosion of councils’ traditional revenue sources to certain government agencies, Minister Bah said a stakeholders meeting was convened by the government some years ago, where it was agreed and concluded that livestock fees be collected by the Gambia Livestock Management Agency instead of councils since they do not have the “capacity to provide necessary vaccination for livestock.”
According to the minister, it was also agreed from this stakeholder’s convergence that since the routine maintenance of highway lights are carried out by the National Roads Authority, it should be mandated to collect bill board fees.
Explaining the concerns about revenues derived from sand mining, Minister Bah claimed both Brikama and Kerewan Area councils are benefitting 20 percent collection from sand mining by the Geology Department.
Upper Niumi NAM Omar Darboe asked the minister to inform whether he has any plans to help councils boost their revenue generating activities like building houses for rent to businesses and people since they lost some of their traditional sources.
Hamat responded that “councils must innovate and go extra mile to generate revenue.”
