Opinion: Urgent Need To Profile Public And Civil Servants On Institutional Websites

By Baboucarr Camara

The Gambia we once knew devoid of impersonation, conspiracy, and wanton need to dine at the gallery of kings and queens without a dime is gone! For reasons beyond my understanding and common logic, there is a clear need to draw the line between the country’s workforce and the political stalwarts of the many political parties roaming public institutions in search of position to the point of impersonating public officials, spreading rumors and flaming unworthy hatred in many public institutions.

All political parties, I believe, have offices as required by the 2015 amended elections act to have a secretariat in each administrative region and by conscience should conduct their relative activities in those offices to allow what is considered a professional workforce to deliver on its mandate.

The ramification of allowing some of these loyalists to be roaming around encourages unnecessary exchanges with professionals and in a short time pollutes an effective environment for authority and leadership to find a common convergence point in serving the public. In fact, it sways professional practice, frustrates expertise, and throws political authority in harm’s way without notice.

Many today are dressing like James Bond and Angelina Jolie using many terms very unfamiliar to theory and practice to malice, defraud, subjugate, and corrupt the system because of what many of them term as a connection to this and that authority.

As elections are now over and a new cabinet appointed, it’s my considerate opinion that all public institutions will endeavor to profile their staff and must have ‘functional and effective websites’. There must also be massive campaigns to popularize these sites and engage the citizenry to understand who to entertain and when to call the nearest police station. This helps in a number of ways since it discourages mass corruption, nepotism, conspiracy, and arbitrary dismissals orchestrated by misinformation and doom-mongering.

About the author: Baboucarr Camara is a senior journalist and has 13 years of service in his field of current practice. He has previously served in central government for 5 years in many roles relating to youth development and international advocacy.  Camara was also the former Commonwealth regional youth caucus representative for the Gambia at the Commonwealth Regional Center for Africa (2007-2009). He currently works as a managing Editor at the Gambia Radio & Television Service and is pursuing the Chevening Africa Media Fellowship program at the University of Westminster in London.

Disclaimer: This is strictly a personal opinion by the author as a concerned Gambian, under his right to freedom of expression; and it does not reflect the views of this medium or his employer on the subject.