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Gambia: Hon. Halifa Sallah Counters Hon. Bala Gaye On Budget

Following the presentation of the 2007 budget speech by the Hon. Secretary of state for Finance and Economic Affairs, Musa Gibril Bala Gaye, on Monday, 18th December, the Minority Leader and member for Serrekunda Central, Hon. Halifa Sallah, has been making known his reservation of some of the Secretary of State's speech:

In his presentation on government development strategy for 2007, the Secretary of State for Finance and Economic Affairs had told the National Assembly that in the previous 2004 and 2005 financial years, actual Gambia Local Fund (GLF) poverty reducing expenditures reached D330. 26 million and D365. 85 million respectively in line with the poverty reduction strategy paper (PRSP) -1 objective.

He said, "From the GLF 2004 poverty reducing expenditures, D145.35 million (93%) was allocated to education, D148.96 million (88%) to health and social welfare, D35.92 million (85%) to Agriculture, and D1.88 million (5%) to natural resources and environment. Education recorded the highest disbursement at 93% followed by health."

In his analysis, Hon. Sallah observed that "a budget speech must contain the general policies of government, but it should also tell us concretely how revenue is going to be generated and how that revenue is going to be invested. We've been told that it will be generated mainly from direct and indirect taxes. Where that revenue is going to go is what is going to reduce poverty, and is what is going to increase poverty."

Where the poverty reduction money is going to be spent has been clearly spelt out in the speech. Both Government and World Bank and IMF have long agreed that poverty can best be reduced by government targeting the social sectors of education, health and women affairs. In his speech, Mr. Gaye had placed much emphasis on Government's efforts in these areas.

Hon. Sallah, however, thinks differently. "Nothing has been said about poverty reduction. It is just mere wishes and promises but in reality, you cannot see any policy that will also make a lead to development of the productive base, the increase in income, helping our farming community to earn their income in order to reduce poverty", he noted.

On The Gambia government social sectors, Mr. Bala Gaye had asserted that government has identified ambitious policy objectives for the second phase of its education program (2004-2015), and that substantial attention will be given to expanding access to quality education, especially for girls. According to him, early childhood development has become part of the basic education cycle, given the importance of the early years of development for children. "The (2004-2015) education policy acknowledges the importance of these early years, and hence, linkages with other government departments, NGOs, and local authorities and local committees have been to develop and to promote an integrated approach to early childhood development."

The Secretary of State had noted that the health sector continues to implement its policy objective of improving various programs. He said one of these programs is to manage basic health services according to the Bamako initiative, which focuses on increased access to basic health services for the poor in the rural and depressed urban areas, and improving the quality of health services.

In 2007, government will intensify its work on HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis, through sensitization programs, and the provision of curative and preventive drugs, he had also promised. He added that both the African Development Bank and the Islamic Development Bank funded projects have identified the Farafenni AFPRC general hospital site for expansion.

"The new project will also continue to improve coverage, quality, and the utilization of maternal and child health services in The Gambia," Mr. Gaye had added. He said more focus would also be placed on other systemic issues, such as the high attrition rate of nurses and mid-wives, to ensure skilled supervision of mothers during pregnancy to enable the detection of potential problems and provision of basic obstetrics care.

On population, Mr. Musa Bala Gaye had stated that the overall goal of the national population policy is to improve the quality of life, and raise the standard of living of all Gambians.

On women and development, Mr. Gaye had asserted that government has identified a site for a multi-purpose market for women, and has also established a women's self-help co-operative to assist women with micro-credit for income generating activities. He said in a bid to address the problems of women in The Gambia, government will present a women's bill to the National Assembly in 2007. All these the Secretary Of State for Finance and Economic Affairs had said in his speech on the 2007 budget. But according to Hon. Sallah, the budget is missing the whole point of poverty eradication.

"The Secretary of State," he continued, "has told us one thing that the private sector is finding it difficult to be able to get money from the banking system because of the high interest rates. Then it means that the private sector cannot invest in the productive base." Hon. Sallah therefore wondered how employment is going to be generated if the private sector does not invest in the productive base, asserting that employment generation would continue to be elusive.

"The Secretary of State for Finance talked about poverty reduction. Poverty can only be reduced if income increases and nothing has been said in that increase. What is more devastating is that every Gambian was anticipating that the Secretary of State will be talking about the farming community, the buying and purchasing of groundnuts. It has not been mentioned. So how is the groundnut going to be purchased this year? How can you talk about poverty reduction and increase in the income of the farming community without purchasing their groundnuts?

Hon. Sallah went on to state that people should bear in mind that statistics have revealed that 69% of the population are living in abject poverty, lamenting that poverty may well persist till 2015 and that in view of such an eventuality, it should have been ensured that a fall from 69% to 50% be registered. "This is realistic policy and it should be based on the real situation. It must be measurable and then you should be anticipating that next year it will go down," the Minority Leader stated.

Turning his attention to the plight of civil servants, Hon. Sallah posited that no mention has been made of this sector of the workforce whose earnings, he noted, range from D500, D600, D1000 and D1500, adding that consequently there is no telling if their income is going to be increased.

On the price of basic commodities, he made reference to the price of bread, fish and meet. "How are you reducing poverty, how are you reducing malnutrition without increasing the income, the earning capacity of the people to enable them purchase," he reasoned.

"On the way forward, we are trying to provide an alternative and the alternative is that you must be able to build up the productive base of the economy. What the Secretary of State is telling us is that all these public corporations, when you hear huge profit, profit must be linked to dividend. All those corporations that have been mentioned to be making profits are not paying dividend to the government," he concluded.