By Omar Bah
The National Assembly member for Banjul South, Touma Njai, has condemned as embarrassing the decision of parliamentarians to allocate themselves a 54-million-dalasis loan in the 2021 budget.
Seventeen NAMs out of the 33 who voted on Friday agreed to a proposal for a loan of over 50 million dalasis to build their houses.
“Seeing NAMs approve D54M is not only embarrassing, but contradictory to the statements most held on to and tried holding the Government accountable for. Seeing resources moved from primary and most needed facilities made me madder. I asked myself, are we really ready?”
“We indeed have a long way to go. I shall continue giving my all to the people that I represent. Their interest shall always be my priority,” she said.
Meanwhile, lawmakers also rejected Halifa Sallah’s motion to rescind their decision of allocating the D54,400,000 loan.
While moving the motion during the consideration of the 2021 budget estimate on Friday, the Serekunda NAM argued that his colleagues who voted “Yes” acted beyond their powers under the Constitution, the Public Finance Act and the Standing Orders.
“I wish to move that by adding a sum to the Assembly, which has no provision in terms of item and head, went beyond the bounds of what this Assembly is empowered to do under our Constitution, Public Finance Act and the Standing Orders. By virtue of that, I move that we rescind our decision and then allow the Clerk and the Finance Ministry to work on any proposal that any member may have. If we fail to do that, we will be sacrificing section 112 of the Constitution,” he said.
Halifa added: “One has no moral authority to criticize anybody unless you look at yourself and then do what is completely opposite of what that man is doing. If we accept this increase the suffering will increase and they will start quoting what you are receiving. For this is my last sojourn in this National Assembly. I will never be a National Assembly member again after this term – I am not interested in being a National Assembly member. I just want to at least leave a legacy of how a National Assembly should function but some of you want to be here again,”
The motion was put to a vote. Out of 33 lawmakers who voted, 16 voted in favour of the motion and 17 voted against the motion.
