By Kebba AF Touray
National Assembly members have debated over the 2024 budget estimates for the Office of the President. There were proposals for certain reductions to be made in the budget line, but they all failed in their bids.
Some of the lawmakers wanted the estimates for the office of the President to be reduced.
Sulayman Saho, the Member for Central Baddibu, proposed that the budget line for the President’s visits to the provinces be reduced to 30 million dalasi from 66 million dalasi. The matter was put to vote. 26 voted for the budget line to be maintained while 15 voted in favour of the proposal. 1 member abstained.
Lamin Ceesay, a Member of Kiang West, proposed the reduction of the travel budget line pegged at 66 Million Dalasi to 40 Million Dalasi. Honourable Ceesay said his proposal is necessary since there is currently an embargo on travel. He added that the amount to be reduced will be reallocated to other priority areas. Some NAMs in support of the proposal advanced the reasoning that the said reduction is necessary to ensure that it is reallocated to other key sectors such as the health sector, to address the problems of drug shortage that is affecting the health care service delivery in the country. They also argued that in the face of the huge budget deficit, the Office of the President should serve as exemplary in cutting its expenses, which other entities can emulate to help in financing the deficit. The proposal was put to vote – 9 voted in favour of the proposal for the reduction, 26 voted for the budget line to be maintained and 3 abstained from voting on the matter.
Omar Jammeh, the Member for Janjanbureh also proposed a reduction in the budget line for stationary. He explained that we are living in a digitalised world and the Office of the President should not be using paper because it has a negative impact on the environment. He stated that the Office of the President should reduce the use of papers. The matter was put to a vote. 9 voted for the proposal, 20 voted against the proposal, and 1 abstained from taking part in the voting.
SuwaibouTouray, the Member for Wuli East also proposed for a cut in the budget line for official entertainment under the centralized service from 4 Million Dalasi to 2 Million Dalasi. He said it has skyrocketed from an allocation of little over 1 Million Dalasi in 2023 to 4 Million Dalasi in the 2024 estimates.
The reason for this allocation, as explained by the FPAC, was that the 4 Million Dalasi is put in place to provide entertainment for the international guests that will be coming to the country for the OIC Summit in 2024.
HonourableTouray subsequently withdrew his proposal.
Consequently, the budget lines of the Office of the President remained untouched as they were maintained as submitted in the 2024 estimates.
