By Yankuba Jallow
The National Assembly Member for Upper Saloum, Alhaji Mbowe, has called for a forensic audit of government agencies that generate their own revenue while receiving state funding, warning that poor financial controls and unpaid bills are putting pressure on public finances.
Speaking during the National Assembly’s debate on the 2027 national budget, Mbowe urged the Ministry of Finance to examine how public institutions spend their internally generated revenue and government subventions, arguing that agencies capable of financing their operations should not continue to depend on state support indefinitely.
“There are certain institutions you cannot continue to subvent forever. It’s not going to work,” he said.
“Let’s interrogate the revenues that they receive, in addition to the subvention. And if they have enough, why do you continue to subvent? Get off, and let’s move to somewhere else.”
Mbowe said some agencies received government funding while also generating money independently, raising questions about whether their financing arrangements were necessary.
“Agencies that are created can also generate funds for themselves. But you create them, you keep subventing them, and they also keep making money on their own. When do we balance the two?” he asked.
“If they are making enough, cut them off from the subvention, and let’s move on.”
The lawmaker also called on the Ministry of Finance to address the growing problem of unpaid bills owed by ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), saying government institutions should not be allowed to commit public funds without approved budgets.
He said the problem had persisted for years, with outstanding payments appearing in successive national budgets.
“If you check for the past five, six years, go look at the budgets we have, every year, in the centralized budget, you will see areas that need to be paid,” he said.
Mbowe questioned why government institutions were allowed to enter into financial commitments when they had not received the necessary budget approval or funding.
“But why do we allow the other ministries, departments, and agencies to commit to the government when you do not have money for that? Why are we allowing that to happen?” he asked.
“Why do we have to allow them to commit to the government when you know the parliament has not approved anything for you?”
He warned that some institutions continued to make commitments in the expectation that the government would settle the bills years later.
“But you’re going to go commit yourself, and expecting that maybe one year, or two years, or three years down the line, you’ll be paid,” he said.
“That is wrong. The Minister of Finance must fix that, because they have all the powers to stop it.”
Mbowe said lawmakers could make recommendations, but responsibility for enforcing financial controls rested with the Ministry of Finance.
“We will not help you to do that. You go do that on your own. You can point out the issues, and we can make a recommendation, but the rest is for you to go and implement. You go and fix that thing,” he said.
The Upper Saloum lawmaker also addressed concerns about government spending on the President’s visits to communities across the country, commonly known as the Meet the People Tour.
He said the debate over such expenditure required a closer examination of budget transparency and the constitutional responsibilities of the President.
Mbowe began by thanking the Minister of Finance and the wider ministry for preparing the budget under difficult circumstances, saying the government could not meet every request made by ministries and public agencies.
He also questioned whether a budget could be judged as good or bad before its implementation and its impact on citizens had been assessed.
“I remember a few days ago somebody called me and said, Mbowe, this budget for 2027, is it a good one? And I struggled to answer the question,” he said.
“Because the issue is like, what is a good budget? What is a bad budget?”
He argued that the true measure of a budget should be whether the government delivered what it had promised and whether its spending improved people’s lives.
“For me, personally, I think you can tell whether it’s good or bad at the end of the implementation. What you say you intend to do the following year, whether you have done that, and what impact does it have on the population?” he said.
“For me, I think that could be a good beginning.”
He also stressed the importance of transparency, referring to the inclusion of a specific budget line for the President’s visits to communities during the 2018–2019 period.
“If you remember, in 2019, you know this budget line we talk about, President’s visit to the upcountry? You never see it on the budget line,” he said.
“It was not there. It was around 2018, 2019, when they completely showed the budget line item, how much does the President spend going upcountry to meet the people? That is what we call transparency.”
Mbowe questioned how previous presidents had financed their community visits when the expenditure was not clearly shown in the budget.
“Even if it was not there, how was the former President able to go meet the people? That’s the question that we should ask ourselves,” he said.
He acknowledged concerns about the cost of presidential tours but argued that lawmakers should also consider the constitutional implications of a president failing to meet citizens.
“I do understand the ‘Meet The People Tour’ , the kind of expenditure we have. I do understand. But now, let’s say, let’s assume that the President refuses to go. What is going to be the repercussion if he refuses to go and meet the people?” he asked.
“Isn’t that not a violation of the Constitution? What would happen to him if that actually happens?”
He said the issue required an objective assessment, adding that lawmakers had not taken steps to amend the relevant constitutional provision.
“This is in the Constitution, and there’s no member from the 5th or the 6th legislature that has taken the time to try to amend that particular section of the Constitution,” he said.
“We think it’s not necessary. Remove it. But I can guarantee you, if the President has to move somewhere, he will move.”
Mbowe urged lawmakers to weigh the cost of presidential tours against their constitutional and public responsibilities rather than consider the expenditure in isolation.
“So, let’s take a look at it objectively, so that we can better understand, really, some of these issues,” he said.
The lawmaker also called for greater investment in science education, urging the government to provide students with better access to laboratories for practical lessons in biology, chemistry, physics and information and communication technology.
He questioned how the country could expect to develop science education without providing the facilities students needed to apply what they learned in class.
“You see, we want to develop our sciences, whether it’s biology, chemistry, physics, ICT, but yet still, you don’t want to build a lab to do that,” he said.
Although he acknowledged the availability of regional laboratories, Mbowe questioned whether students from distant communities could reasonably be expected to travel long distances to access them.
“But how do you expect somebody from Karantaba to go to Armitage for a physics laboratory? How do you expect somebody from Panjang to go to Kauru?” he asked.
He said the relevant committee had recommended D12 million for laboratory construction, proposing that the funds be used to establish at least one fully equipped facility in an area with the greatest need.
“And that’s the reason why the committee made a recommendation of 12 million dalasi, where we can look at the most pressing ones in the region or country,” he said.
“Where it may be, I do not know, but we are making a recommendation. At least build one lab completely, so that we can reduce the kind of back and forth of the students.”
Mbowe said practical work was essential to science education and could not be replaced by classroom teaching alone.
“We want to develop, but yet you don’t provide the necessities for that to happen in the sciences. It’s not going to work. It’s not magic,” he said.
“Science is about practicals. Science is about these theories that you do, but the practical aspect is most important for you to understand.”
Mbowe also called for greater investment in the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA), arguing that stronger revenue collection could help the government raise more domestic funds to finance public services.
He said the government should assess revenue collection as a strategic investment, with additional resources directed towards institutions capable of generating higher returns for the public purse.
“I said this years ago. We must run this government as a business entity. If you don’t do that, you will always find it difficult,” he said.
He argued that the government should be prepared to increase funding for the GRA if doing so would lead to substantial growth in revenue collection.
“For me, if GRA is given 1 billion dalasi and GRA is able to give me 30 billion dalasi, and if I can invest 2 billion dalasi in GRA and GRA can give me 50 or 60 billion dalasi, I will give them 2 billion,” he said.
“Let them go find out what they’re going to do with it. They’ll be accountable.”
Mbowe urged the government to provide the authority with the resources it needed to strengthen its operations and improve revenue collection.
“So let’s support GRA at the maximum so that they can go do what they need to do to ensure that we have more revenues,” he said.
He also referred to an increase in domestic revenue from D6.5 billion in 2014 to D40 billion in the 2027 budget, asking what had driven the growth and how the government could build on it.
“Revenue actually has increased from 6.5 in 2014 to today we are talking about 40 in 2027. Something actually has changed drastically. What is that?” he asked.
“Whatever is that change that led to this from 6.5 to 40, let’s go and augment that.”
He called for further investment in the systems and people responsible for collecting taxes and other domestic revenue, saying improved collections could give the government more resources to meet national needs.
“Let’s spend more on them so that we can actually equally receive maybe more from them,” he said.
Mbowe, who apologised to fellow lawmakers at the start of his contribution because he was feeling unwell, said he had chosen to attend the sitting because of the importance of the national budget.