Hon Lamin Ceesay, the National Assembly Member for Kiang West
By Ramatoulie Jawo
Hon. Lamin Ceesay, the National Assembly Member for Kiang West Constituency, expressed concerns on Monday about the impact of the black market foreign exchange on the country’s revenue.
These remarks were made during his deliberations on the 2024 State of the Nation Address by His Excellency President Barrow.
“There is a lot of revenue by passing the national revenue structure, looking around Westfield and Bamboo, these are clusters for the black market of foreign exchange. We have revenue structure that is built and people employed to monitor, to ensure that trading as far as foreign currency is concerned, taxes are levied on institutions that pay tax and establish structures, and this is supposed to go through those structures so that the government will realize its revenue. But anytime you talk about this the minister will tell you we don’t have evidence,” he said.
He further emphasized the need to question the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance on how these individuals access such substantial amounts of foreign currency.
“We are all giving a deaf ear, and a blind eye to it, and these are some of the things that are killing our economy. And there are people who are putting those general revenue structures into their pockets,” he said.
Hon. Ceesay also addressed the country’s safety, questioning the interior minister on how drugs are entering the country and the responsibilities of the country’s security forces.
He stressed the importance of guarding the borders to prevent drug infiltration.
“We are aware that drugs are taking the lives of our young people. We should question how these drugs get into the country, it has to be protected from coming into the country, before protecting people from abusing them. You can not wait until it starts killing people you want to stop, If the government did not address this we would accuse them of allowing it in the country. It has to be protected from coming on before we protect people from abusing it,” he stressed.
He also commented on the D10M allocated to the Ministry of Fisheries and Water Resources for drilling boreholes in rural communities, requesting a list of beneficiary communities, including completed, ongoing, and pending projects.
“Provide the list to us we want to know the beneficiaries so that this August assembly, the committee responsible for that, when we go around we can use that checklist you have given us to see if you have implemented this and its benefit on those communities,” he added.
Additionally, Hon. Almameh Gibba, the National Assembly Member for Foni Kansala, urged the Defense Minister to address bills in parliament that could strengthen the country’s security. He also called on the Ministry of Justice to work on the bill and bring it to the Assembly