The government of the Gambia has suspended foreign travels by public servants in order to cut down on expenditure. However, Foroyaa is not aware of any review made by the minister of finance and economic affairs or cabinet of the budget.
It is important that government takes budget execution very seriously. The objective of having budget sessions is to ensure resources are allocated by items so that expenditure will match budgetary allocations.
No budgetary agency should exhaust those resources by extending them by what has not been itemized for expenditure. Under the current budgetary system, what ought to be done is for the minister of finance to make it a requirement for submission of quarterly review of budget execution rates to be presented to the National Assembly. So in that way, the gaps would be identified and policies would be put in place to address the gaps. This is the way the executive and legislature could cooperate to ensure an efficient and effective execution of the budget.
It is important that before government makes any declaration, it gives evidence to the National Assembly for proper decisions to be made.
