Honorable Yahya Sanyang, National Assembly Member For Latri Kunda Sabiji
By Ramatoulie Jawo
Hon. Yahya Sanyang, the National Assembly Member for Latri Kunda Sabiji, has expressed strong disapproval of the government’s decision to raise the travel budget from D374 million to D543 million, questioning the justification behind this significant increase.
Sanyang made these remarks during his participation in the National Assembly debate on the FPAC consolidated report on the 2025 budget estimates, revenues, and expenditures.
” Hon. minister for me, I was thinking this government is going to be frugal with spending, but the record we have before us is that this government ban traveling before. I do not know what has changed. You raise your travelling budget from 374,000,000.00 Million to 543, 000, 000.00 million and for what I don’t know. What has changed? But this government said it was very committed to minimizing or curtailing traveling in the country, now you have increased that budget,” he stated.
Sanyang also expressed concern about the increase in funding for the President’s “Meet the People” tour, which saw its budget rise from D30 million to D50 million, calling it unacceptable.
“Hon Minister, this is unacceptable. When you have cut spending for higher education, the scholarship has been reduced drastically, for me, this 20 million could have been committed to giving scholarship to Gambians than giving it to the office of the president for entertainment,” he stressed.
He further criticized the government’s handling of the vehicle policy, which had been a significant issue when the coalition government came to power in 2017. According to Sanyang, the commitment to responsible vehicle allocations has since been abandoned, leading to what he described as a “reckless” increase in the vehicle budget from D138 million to D800 million.
“So it is now occurring to Gambians when those serious set of people left the government, now there is recklessness all over. Because why would you increase the vehicle budget from D138, 000, 000.00 million to D800,000,000.00 million. Gambian taxpayers money for the public minister when people are dying in hospital, scholarships are not available to Gambians, but the government went ahead and snowball vehicle allocation from D138, 000, 000. 00 million to D800,000,000.00. I urged this national assembly to seriously cut this budget. If we cannot maintain D138, 000, 000. 000 million, then let us cut from 800,000,000.00 million to probably D150,000,000.00 Million,” he said.
Sanyang also raised concerns about the broader implications of the proposed budget, particularly in relation to potential tax hikes and their impact on ordinary Gambians.
“2025 I tell Gambians is going to be a very bad year for Gambians. It is going to be a very difficult year for the Gambia. This year a bag of rice might snowball up to D3,000 or D3,500. Because what is going to happen is the government is going to hide tax on the citizens and if you have high tax on citizens what happened subsequently the prices of basic commodities are going to rise. So honorable minister, I want explanation on whether there is going to be any tax hike as far as this budget is concerned,”he concluded.