A government Insider has blamed The Ministry of Local Government and Lands for its failure to check millions of revenue collected by the councils. The insider also blames the Minister for not going on a tour of departments under his purview and to find out what is happening in the Municipalities and Councils since he took office over six months now.
“How can they still allow councils to audit themselves,” the source asked.
He added: “Government needs to bring external auditors to audit councils”.
The insider source has confided to this medium that the councils are collecting millions of revenue particularly the Brikama Area Council and Kanifing Municipal Council, saying that the chunk of the money are not properly utilised for the development aspirations of the people. He said previously under the former regime, money used to be diverted to sponsored the so-called national activities such as the Kanilai Festivals, July 22 Anniversary and so forth. He explained how the council money was forcefully taken to sponsored the former APRC’s political party activities.
“The councils are supposed to bring development to the door step of the people. The Local Government Act says that the councils would collect directly from the people and sixty percent of that should be returned to the people as development. This is what is expected from the councils,” he pointed out.
He talked about the incapacity of the councils over the years saying what people were expecting from them was not forthcoming in terms of development, garbage collections, helping women in their gardens and providing scholarships to poor students among other things. He added that during the previous regime anytime there was an event in Kanilai, a budget would come from the Governor’s Office for the Brikama Area Council to fund it.
“Now that the new government is saying that they are not going to tie the hands of the councils to be doing those numerous national events, people expect dramatic change in councils. It is more than six months people have not seen any signs of that change. What is happening? I believed the councils need to be check,” he posited.
The insider source complained about the Minister of Local Government and Lands, saying every head of institution should be acquainted with what is going on their department particularly a Minister who should go round the country to know what is happening in the departments under his Ministry. He said he is surprised that the Minister has not embarked on any familiarization tour since he took office six months ago. He said the councils are under the Ministry of Local Government and Lands, adding that the councils are very key under the said Ministry.
“The policy makers of the Councils are the Councillors and because we have been blaming the former regime for the mismanagement of national funds, the majority of Councillors in all Councils are from The APRC party. If NAMs and Executive members could be found wanting in terms of mismanagement or misdirection of policies then the Councillors also should be found wanting,” he asserted
He said the Councillors are still there because their terms are yet to end but there is a need to check what they are doing at the councils, arguing that the Government and Ministry of Local Government are very careless in that area.
Meanwhile, garbage collection has been a major concern particularly among the residents of Brikama. The Council garbage collectors allegedly take money from people to collect their garbage and leave out those who cannot afford to pay. There is said to be a lot of uncollected garbage in the main car park for several weeks.
