By: Foday Manneh
The newly sworn-in Chairman of the Basse Area Council, Mahamadou Ceesay, has vowed to restore trust and confidence in the council by eradicating corruption and corrupt-related activities.
Mr. Ceesay made these promises at his swearing-in ceremony with newly elected council councilors on Friday, May 2, 2023.
“The Recent happenings concerning maladministration and financial indiscipline within the council resulted in a loss of trust and confidence among taxpayers, investors, and development partners as well as natives of the Region,” Chairman said.
“We will restore trust to attract more development and positive partnerships for our people by stamping out corruption and corrupt practices and investing the revenue collected in our communities for development and our well-being in line with standards of good governance, transparency, accountability, and exclusivity,” he added.
The former regional youth leader further called on everyone to help champion the fight against corruption by all means, especially in refusing and avoiding to aid and abet corrupt practices and officials and reporting all corruption and corrupt-related activities.
The newly elected Chairman also revealed that his council would produce a development blueprint to underpin fundamental development aspirations highlighted in his seven-point agenda during the campaign.
“We will deliver on our environmental mandate of effective waste management, create more green jobs and prevent environmental disasters and climate change and empower our youth and women to be more productive and proactive in the different economic sectors, especially in TVET, agribusiness, and Technology.”
Mr. Ceesay also promised to immediately instruct to develop a unique assessment tool to help ascertain the council’s capacity.
Ceesay contested under the ruling National People’s Party in the recently concluded Mayoral and Chairmanship elections of the Gambia, which he won with a landslide victory to succeed his close contender, Foday Danjo of the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP).
