Demba Ali Jawo, Former Minister of Information
By D. A. Jawo
We can all recall that about three weeks ago, the government issued a press release announcing an immediate suspension of “all non-statutory overseas travels by the President, the Vice-President, Cabinet Ministers, Senior Government Officials, Civil Servants and employees across all Government institutions and agencies.”
According to the release, the move was as a result of the need “to curb government expenditures.”
Of course, while most people welcomed the announcement because there has been quite a lot of unnecessary foreign travel, no doubt costing millions of Dalasis to the Gambian tax payers, but many others were also skeptical about its implementation. This is because it is not the first time that we have seen similar decisions being made but never implemented, with cabinet ministers and other senior government officials continuing with their frequent overseas travels.
Therefore, there is no indication that this time round, the decision would be adhered to. In fact, we have seen that less than three weeks after the issuance of the order, President Adama Barrow himself flouted it by apparently spending millions of Dalasis in per diems and the hiring of a plane and filling it with a large entourage of mostly NPP militants to go to Mauritania just to witness the swearing-in ceremony of President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani. One would wonder what benefit the Gambia can derive from attending such an event to warrant him going against his own order.
According to the press release, the only exceptions “from this Presidential Order are travels to statutory meetings where the Gambia’s participation is mandatory and foreign trips fully funded by external sources.” It is very unlikely that President Barrow’s trip to Mauritania or the Vice President’s recent trip to Senegal were either “statutory” meetings or “fully funded by external sources.” Therefore, we can easily conclude that it is the usual attitude of saying one thing and doing the complete opposite, which had been the hallmark of this regime for quite a while now.
If President Barrow and his VP are seen not respecting the policies of his own administration, it would be hard to see how he can compel other members of his team to adhere to such orders. It is therefore not a surprise that nothing seems to have changed with regards to foreign travels.