The clerk of the National Assembly has been taken to court over a so-called 54 million dalasis loan scheme MPs approved for themselves.
MPs last year came under huge criticism after they went ahead to borrow themselves taxpayers’ money under the 2021 budget running into millions of dalasis.
Two leading CSO groups, Gambia Participates and Centre for Research and Policy Development, have now mounted a legal challenge on the decision.
The groups on December 28 filed a lawsuit at the Supreme Court seeking the top court to decalre that the amendment done by the National Assembly by including a budget line item of D54.4 million is “in contravention of sections 151,152 and 155 of the Constitution and a violation of section 47 of the Public Finance Act, 2014”.
The groups also want a declaration that the approval of the annual estimates of revenue and expenditure for the year 2021 with the inclusion of the sum of D54.4 million as loan to National Assembly Members and staff of the National Assembly service was a ‘usurpation’ of the powers given to the President in section 152 of the Constitution and a violation of clause 70 of the Standing Orders of the National Assembly.
The groups sued the cleark of the national assembly alongside the auditor general, ministry of finance and the attorney general.
The groups want an order directing the Auditor General not to grant approval for the withdrawal of the sum of D54.4 million or any part of it by the National Assembly or the National Assembly Service.
They also want an order directing the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs not to pay from the Consolidated Fund or any Fund of the government the sum of D54.4 million or any money at all to the National Assembly members or staff of the National Assembly Service as loan pursuant to the approved estimates of revenue and expenditure of the Government for the year 2021.
Also, they want an order severing and striking down the part of the Appropriation Act authorizing the payment of the sum of D54.4 million as loan to the National Assembly Members and staff of the National Assembly Service.
Gambia Participates and Centre for Research and Policy Development also want an injunction against the Clerk of the National Assembly and the National Assembly restraining them from raising warrants or preparing payment vouchers or any document that would facilitate the processing of the payment of the sum of D54.4 million or any part of it to the staff of the National Assembly Service and the National Assembly members.
