Calls have been made from this medium before for the Government of The Gambia to be always forthcoming in revealing details of agreements entered into by the government for and on behalf of the Gambian people. This will go a long way in preventing certain unscrupulous individuals using said agreements for their own ends to the detriment of the people and the country.
It was in this same spirit that calls were also made for the details of the agreement between The Gambia and Spain on migrant workers to be made public so that everyone will have an understanding of what it entails and how it is supposed to work. This would enable the citizens to know whether the country stands to benefit from it or not.
In a recent story on this paper, the Minister of Trade, Industry and Regional Integration and Employment Mr Baboucarr Joof was quoted saying that no company that is licensed to recruit applicants for the Spain-Gambia migrant workers agreement should charge anything from the public.
Joof was responding to claims made to The Standard Newspaper by some applicants that licensed recruitment agencies have levied huge sums of money for application processes. In fact, one applicant shared a receipt confirming payment of fifty thousand dalasi to one of the companies. This is unbelievable!
It will be recalled that when this agreement was introduced to the National Assembly, one member raised concerns about the possibility of it being abused by some unprincipled people for their own benefit. At the time, the minister assured the Assembly that there were safeguards against that but did not elaborate as to what those safeguards were.
These revelations show how important transparency is and how it can help protect the integrity of a process. If citizens are fully informed of all the details of such an agreement, it reduces the possibilities of someone using their ignorance of the facts to exploit them and extract money from them.
Perhaps the time has come for the ministry to now come out and explain what those safeguards are and how they will protect the people who are desirous of taking this opportunity to find work in Spain.
