By Tabora Bojang
Bakary Badjie, the National Assembly Member for Foni Bintang has called on lawmakers to remove the controversial Constituency Development Fund (CDF) which the auditor general said is littered with serious instances of “poor management” and “significant waste” of funds, with D2.6 million paid on projects and activities without approval of the Clerk in 2022. The fund allows NAMs to identify a project in their constituency at the tune of D500,000 that would be implemented by the National Assembly Authority.
But according to the auditor general, among other things, there was no delivery documentation for a colossal D3.5 million paid for funding of several projects including installation of milling machines, construction or fencing of football fields raising risks of misappropriation or diversion of goods.
These payments ranging from D299,500 to D300,000 were paid to suppliers such as Sarr Construction, Kasna Enterprise, Arafat Trading, Filly’s Enterprise, Jabus Trading, HJ Global Sourcing, SB Brothers Weldings, Jabbie Jarka Enterprise, Yoroba Sitaa and Dawda Solar Borehole, but the majority of the projects remain either incomplete beyond their specified timeline or were never delivered.
These findings became subject of intense debate in the Assembly yesterday after the Finance and Public Accounts Committee (FPAC) presented its report on the audited financial statement of public institutions from 2020 to 2024.
The FPAC report also pointed to “administrative lapses” in the management, supervision and monitoring of the Fund which led to incompletion of projects or non delivery.
In his contribution to the debate NAM Badjie, charged that corruption is cutting through all sectors of the government including the National Assembly.
“The Local Government, Central Government – and now the National Assembly have all been wanting in corruption with some members even benefiting from corruption money involved in the EU Banjul project. As lawmakers, we have three main functions- representation-lawmaking and the oversight function we perform in public institutions. So where does this Constituency Development Fund (CDF) fit into our responsibility? It is not our responsibility to build boreholes. It is not our responsibility to construct roads or build schools. We must stick to our responsibilities and remove this Constituency Development Fund, that is the only way we can free ourselves from these allegations, ” he said.
Badjie accused the National Assembly authorities of coming up with the CDF scheme for “selfish” gains.
“The National Assembly Service team brought this CDF just to buy me, so that they will eat from the Fund and we the Members will not notice it. They appoint very useless contractors and at the end of the day it is the Members of the National Assembly who are blamed. These are sad realities and some of us Members will be running after them and begging. The hope of the nation is in this parliament and we cannot be the judge and the jury. You cannot be holding people account and also receiving money or being given contracts or CDF money. So all these public institutions that are found complicit in corruption or embezzlement of funds including the National Assembly Service should be held to account and their contractors. They should pay back the state funds they misused and some of them should be prosecuted. This is the only way forward for any serious nation,” Badjie, who recently announced his presidential ambition, concluded.
