Hon Alhagie S. Darboe, Chairperson Of The FPAC Committee
By Ramatoulie Jawo
The Finance and Public Accounts Committee (FPAC) of the National Assembly has successfully secured total savings of D416,046,747 by recommending cuts to the 2025 revenue and expenditure estimates for various ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs).
In their consolidated report, FPAC highlighted that these savings resulted from reductions proposed during bilateral discussions between legislative committees and their respective MDAs.
While presenting the report to the plenary, Hon. Alhagie S. Darboe, Chairperson of FPAC, explained that the document summarized the findings and recommendations from various committees. The report also included an addendum detailing reallocations and reductions across different budget lines.
“The Office of the President a total of 25,400,000 and 19,000,000 were reduced from the recurrent and development budgets respectively it is recommended that the 3,000,000 Operating Cost under the development budget be utilized as personnel emolument and operating Costs for the National Disaster management agency (NDMA) for the National Assembly the sum of 6,250,000 was reduced from the recurrent budget, whereas 5,000,000 was reduced from the development budget.”While the recurrent budget of the Judiciary remained untouched, 30,200,000 was reduced from the development budget, for the Independent Electoral Commission the sum of 86,101,338 was reduced from the recurrent budget an amount of 22,100,000 was reduced from the 57,100,000 budgeted for vehicles on the development budget leaving a balance of D35,000,000, and for the national audit Office a total of 5,528,159 was reduced from the recurrent budget, but the development budget remains the same,” he said.
Hon. Darboe clarified that the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs had its recurrent budget reduced by a total of 14,481,500 dalasis, with 1,500,000 dalasis later reinstated. Additionally, 70,594,500 dalasis were cut from the development budget.
Regarding the Ombudsman, he explained that due to inadequacies in the estimates, no deductions were made from any budget lines. He further mentioned that the Committee recommends allocating 8,000,000 dalasis from the savings to purchase vehicles.
“For centralized services the sum of 106,187,000 was reduced from this budget entity the ministry of Public Service, administrative Reforms and Policy coordination Owing to the inadequacies of the estimates, no deduction was made on any of the budget lines, a total saving of 33,250,000 was cut from the estimates of the ministries of defence, and Interior and reallocated to the budget of the Gambia Police Force, the Gambia fire and Rescue Services, and the Gambia immigration Department,”he said.
Hon. Darboe provided a detailed breakdown of the total savings achieved by his committee. He reported that the savings amounted to: 41,400,000 dalasis from the Office of the President, 11,250,000 dalasis from the National Assembly, 77,576,000 dalasis from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, 106,187,000 dalasis from Centralized Services, 30,200,000 dalasis from the Judiciary, 5,528,159 dalasis from the National Audit Office, 108,201,338 dalasis from the Independent Electoral Commission, 20,704,250 dalasis from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and 15,000,000 dalasis from the Ministry of Transport. The total savings amounted to 416,046,747 dalasis.
He further stated that, after a comprehensive review of budget submissions from various institutions, ministries, departments, and agencies, as well as careful consideration of recommendations from various committees, his committee recommended transferring the emergency relief budget line under Centralized Services to the National Disaster Management Agency, which operates under the Office of the Vice President.
“The total amount of 436,000,000 under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the settlement of arrears should be moved to centralized service the budget of the national population secretariat under the Office of the vice President be increased from 15,170,000 to 18,600,000 to cover the cost of two International training Programs scheduled for 2025, and an allocation of 6,000,000 be allocated to the national assembly for the purchase of a staff bus and 3,136,747 for office equipment or middle and lower level staff,” Hon. Darboe said.