By Mariama Marong
To combat corruption and it’s practices in the country, ‘Gambia Participates’ as an NGO, has taken it upon themselves to widen the knowledge of journalists and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) on how to combat the illicit financial flows through asset recovery, during a two day training held at a local hotel in Kololi.
Marr Nyang, executive director ‘Gambia Participates’ highlighted the importance of the training especially at this crucial time when the citizenry is calling for the transparency of all the actions of the government and on how ex-president Jammeh’s assets were sold and how much was gained from the sale of these assets.
According to Mr. Nyang, journalists and civil society organizations have a responsibility to ensure that officials are accountable for their actions especially when it comes to the administration of public funds.
Mr. Nyang said the Gambia has become a haven for money launderers, and said this is an alerting issue that the government and people should combat.
“Money laundering can be done both locally and internationally and this makes it a complex practice to detect,’’ Mr. Nyang said. He said it is difficult to recover public assets without proper guidance on how to ensure this is done in the right manner. He emphasized that the administration and use of assets that belong to the people should be questioned by them because it is their duty to know what has been gained from the sale of these assets.
“It is the people who pay tax to run the day to day affairs of government, and they have all rights to hold those in charge of administering these assets to account,” Mr. Nyang said; that it is against moral values and the law on corruption for fraudulent activities to take place during the disposal of the public’s assets.
Demba Kandeh, journalist and facilitator at the capacity building workshop said is the role of journalists is to expose corruption and corrupt practices, by amplifying accountability through their engagement and partnership with CSOs.
He said assets recovery is about identifying, seizing and returning stolen assets to the state.
Senior journalist Kandeh said CSOs and journalists play vital roles in uncovering corruption and holding the authorities to account; promoting transparency and educating the public about the issues of corruption and money laundering. He called on the need to strengthen legal frameworks and enhance international cooperation to combat illicit financial flows.
