By Buba Gagigo
Essa Faal, the leader of the APP-Sobeyaa political party, has strongly criticized President Adama Barrow’s monthly salary of D500,000, describing it as indefensible in light of the economic realities faced by ordinary Gambians.
“How could anyone justify paying the president D500,000, and then you pay his driver, who’s responsible for his security. He is traveling within the country and is paid D5,000. He (the president) pays no bills. This person on D5,000 would have to pay rent, would have to feed his family, and would have to buy medicine. How on earth can we justify that?” Faal stated during an interview with West Coast Radio.
He added, “This is why I say that we need to rebuild a Gambia, a Gambia that is anchored on morality, a Gambia that is anchored on fairness. We have to have a just society. What we have is a skewed society, skewed in favor of those at the top. And this is a reasoned phenomenon.”
Faal further accused the government of restructuring national systems to disproportionately benefit the elite, all at the expense of ordinary Gambians.
“The people who work hard for the tax that is being paid by Gambians and businesses to build that national cake that they sit in Parliament and dish any which way they want. It is sad. It is unjust. We have to change this system,” he emphasized.
Responding to questions about the government’s spending priorities, Faal criticized what he called a culture of wasteful expenditure and mismanagement of public funds.
“That is what we have in the Gambia, is a slash and bond economy. You tax and spend, but we don’t spend wisely. Instead of prioritizing spending on the needs of the people, the masses, we are prioritizing spending on those at the top and the budget, even though it is the spin doctors are touting it as the best budget Gambia has ever produced. I have never seen a government that goes out on the offensive promoting a budget like it’s being done today, simply because the budget is the worst budget ever produced by this country,” he lamented.
Faal also expressed concern over the D100 million allocated for the president’s travels, describing it as wasteful and unnecessary.
“D100 million is reserved for the president on his travels. Do we need to spend that money on presidential travel? Let’s look at the waste that recently happened at the UNGA, a small country like the Gambia. It’s a begger economy. Every year we have billions of dalasis in deficit. We go around passing the hat for donors to give us money to balance the budget, yet we go to the UN General Assembly with over 80 people. This is a political reward. This is political patronage to satisfy political party supporters, but it was not in service of the Gambia government,” he remarked.
He continued; “I worked at the United Nations. I was a counselor for the Gambia permanent mission, and I sat at the UN Security Council when Gambia was most needed in the world, because we were at the Security Council. Never did we have that size of a delegation. This is an absolute waste. Look at the Meet The People Tour.”
Faal also highlighted overspending on the “Meet the People” tour, which he described as legalized waste.
“This is legalized waste that is given to the government. In 2020, How much was approved? I think it was D6 million and how much was spent by the government, 20 something million. In 2021, they spent D40, something a million. And in 2023 D10 million was approved for the Meet The People Tour, the President spent D61 million of taxpayer money just to go around and meet people in the country.” Faal argued.
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