By Alf Soninke
In his SoNA 2024 President Adama Barrow announced that the total civil service staff is “49,893 strong”; that “an estimated total 83,155 are in the entire public service” – that is, the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).
Now do you know that during the ERP under President Dawda Jawara, the figure for the civil service was around 12,000 staff? Yes!
You may also be interested to know that the first time the country’s National Budget hit D1 Billon (One Billion Dalasis) was during the time when Dominic Mendy was Finance minister – and at the time I recall that I did write a report published in The Gambia Daily newspaper announcing this milestone – I had intended to share a photo of the newspaper report with this article, but searched and could not find it in my archive.
Today, Gambia’s National Budget is more than D20 billion dalasis – with the GRA tasked to collect more than D19 billion for the 2024 budget (or the period from 1 January to 31 December 2024) and has so far collected not less than D10 billion, according to the Commissioner General speaking recently on West Coast Radio’s Coffee Time with Peter Gomez.
So we see that the national budget has been increasing by at least D1 billion annually over the past 20 years or so.
Over the same period, the Gambia governments – especially under Yahya Jammeh and Adama Barrow – have been creating new institutions – which have to be funded and the “emoluments/remuneration” of the staff paid from public funds.
The Oxford Advanced Leaner’s Dictionary simply defines “emolument” (formal) as “money paid to somebody for work that they have done, especially to somebody who earns a lot of money” – emphasis mine.
The same dictionary defines “remuneration” (formal) as “an amount of money that is paid to somebody for work that they have done”.
Any keen observer would have noticed that new public institutions are being established all the time and up to this very minute – latest among them the new State-owned Enterprises (SoE) Commission, the Access to Information (ATI) Commission, with the Anti-Corruption Commission and Vetting Agency (the bill was presented to the NAMs this session) in the pipeline.
Indeed these are the latest concrete examples of our governments focusing on establishing which give fat salaries and allowances etc to a few comparatively, whilst neglecting meaningful expenditure in the productive sectors which grow the economy.
Now this creation of new institutions is being done despite the requirement that actions and activities which have budgetary implications must first be cleared by the Cabinet before being brought to the NAMs for final approval.
And this has been the case with all these endless new offices being set up by the government and the NAMs.
Which means they have decided that the public funds exist to pay for all these public organizations being created left right and center.
It also shows that as far as the new government of Adama Barrow is concerned, gone are the days of austerity and responsible public spending – as required by the unending IMF programs – which by the way have been encouraging increasing tax collection year in year out, and thus endorsing, no doubt, the reckless government profligacy!
And this is what explains why instead of curbing public spending across the board – as recommended by Madi Jobarteh in his latest posts – the Barrow Administration has presented to the NAMs the two controversial bills on Judges remuneration and MPs gratuity and pensions.
And to better appreciate why there is controversy over these two bills, it is necessary to – like I have attempted doing – examine past and current Estimates including the Government Integrated Pay Scale, glean Information and data from past Budget Speeches and SoNA etc., in order to understand how the public sector has been expanding and changing – as well as fiscal policy (tax and spending/expenditure) over the past more than 20 years.
And then one will better understand how the more tax collected over the years was necessitated by the need to pay for the increased salaries, allowances, expenses on travels, among others, of those at the very top of the public service.
And this has been the case particularly as the new National Assembly Service Commission and now the Judicial Service Commission – in asserting the “independence” of these two arms of government from the Executive, make demands to show that staff under them need special treatment – which are over and above the civil servants under the supervision of the Public Service Commission and PMO “enjoy”.
For instance, are you aware that public servants under the said service commissions, as well as the subvented public service institutions are better remunerated than the civil servants under the central government, including members of the Cabinet?
I’m not the one saying so; it was the claim of one of the ministers – either the Justice minister or the Finance minister who said so at the National Assembly. You can go fact-check my assertions.
