Hon. Jammeh Accuses Information Minister of Misinforming Parliament on D40 Million Media Contract
Hon. Dr Ismaila Ceesay, The Minister Of Information
By Ramatoulie Jawo
The National Assembly Member for Janjanbureh Constituency, Hon. Omar Jammeh, during the adjournment debate of the Second Ordinary Session of the National Assembly in the 2024 legislation, accused Hon. Dr. Ismaila Ceesay, the Minister of Information, of providing Parliament with misleading information regarding the D40 million media contract.
“During the same sitting, the Office of the Speaker was praising the Ministry of Information to the extent of advising other Ministries to emulate the Ministry of Information, for the fact that the Minister stood before this plenary and lied on our faces by telling the plenary that the media contract was cut from D40 million to D36 or D37 million. Which was not true, with all due respect.
“And the day that the Minister was before us, these were issues that we wanted to bring clarity on. But we were not given the chance, so should I say we sometimes enable some of the Ministers that would come before us to misinform or mislead the Parliament. Moving forward, Honourable Speaker, these papers before me there were questions that I administered to the said Ministry,” Hon. Jammeh said.
Hon. Jammeh further mentioned that some of his colleagues also sought clarification. In response, Dr. Ceesay stated that the media contract was intended for seven media houses and even listed some of the beneficiaries.
Hon. Jammeh pointed out discrepancies in the information provided by the Ministry, particularly regarding the 50% payment to these media houses.
“On the payments that were made to the seven media houses, to my surprise, a new media house has been captured called Co-Broadcasting and Mediamatic. And on the payment vouchers, QTV and radio never appeared. So who is making an allegation? I will leave that to rest until further notice. But then, for me, I have proven myself beyond all reasonable doubt,” Hon. Jammeh said.
Hon. Jammeh also noted that the Minister of Tourism engaged in similar behaviour, presenting misinformation to the plenary and playing to the gallery.
“Until at the latter part, when Member for Kiang West came up with a question, he (Tourism Minister) was able to agree that yes, the report that he claimed not to receive was received by him, only that he was not satisfied with the content of the report. When initially, he said he didn’t receive any report. When will our Ministers graduate from lying to the Honourable Elected National Assembly Members,” Hon. Jammeh stressed.
The Speaker of the House asked Hon. Jammeh to withdraw his statement, stating it was not parliamentary.
“And next time, Honourable Member, disciplinary action will be considered against you. I ask you to respect people. You can have differences of opinion. You have an opinion, don’t impute to others. And I have told you, Parliament has procedures and processes,” the Speaker told Hon. Jammeh.
In response to the concerns raised, both the Ministers of Fisheries and Tourism urged Hon. Jammeh to speak respectfully in future addresses, as they also represent authorities just like him.