Written by: Seringe S.T. Touray
In a testimony before the Local Government Commission of Inquiry on Wednesday, June 25th, Mayor Rohey Malick Lowe of Banjul City Council (BCC) described various aspects of local government operations in The Gambia, outlining structural issues that have affected governance at the municipal level. The session was led by Patrick Gomez, the commission’s lead counsel.
The testimony addressed gaps between legal frameworks and actual practice in local government administration, detailing how mayors have been operating within constraints despite holding positions of formal authority.
Mayor Lowe’s testimony centered on the practical limitations of mayoral power within local councils. Despite legal provisions establishing hierarchical structures, she testified that the actual operations of councils often differ from statutory requirements.
“The CEOs and the administration have people behind them. If I say I don’t have powers, please believe me,” Mayor Lowe explained, describing how Chief Executive Officers function in day-to-day operations. This power dynamic has created a system where mayors often assume ceremonial roles, while technical staff control critical decisions.
The mayor described her attempts to engage with the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development: “You write to the ministry complaining about something, and they will tell you directly, ‘Don’t ever write us. The CEO has the authority to write us.’ So there are a lot of frustrations in council.”
This statement indicates how the governance structure has been implemented, with mayors finding themselves excluded from communications with higher authorities. Mayor Lowe’s testimony detailed the impact of these limitations: “If you have a CEO who doesn’t have respect, he will relegate you, and this is the truth.”
A significant portion of the testimony focused on what appeared to be a procedural issue—the non-forwarding of Senior Management Team (SMT) meeting minutes to the mayor. This issue revealed aspects of information flow and accountability within the council.
“Most of my communications with the ministry, I just go talk to them, the permanent secretary, and I come back and sit down. But from this commission I learned that writing is very good,” Mayor Lowe testified, acknowledging her previous reliance on informal communication channels.
She further explained the nature of verbal briefings: “What I would like to establish here is that he will not give us the minutes, but he will explain to us directly what has happened. That is the gap—we don’t have something in writing. What happens is that one person says this and the other one says that.”
This practice of relying on undocumented agreements created situations where accountability became difficult to establish, as Mayor Lowe acknowledged: “There are gentleman agreements, which I’m not trying to say should happen.”
The testimony also addressed financial management and expenditure authority. It detailed a disconnect between legal provisions and practical implementation regarding spending limits and approval processes. Additional testimony revealed further complications in financial procedures, including misunderstandings about basic financial concepts and authorization processes.
Despite legal requirements for councils to establish monetary spending limits that determine what level of authority is required for different expenditure amounts, Mayor Lowe stated that Banjul City Council had not effectively implemented such measures. When questioned about her efforts to establish these financial controls, she testified:
“I have written to say that if their spending amounts to something, let them inform me. I wrote a memo to the CEO. I cannot remember exactly, but it’s more than three times. I cannot remember exactly how much I wrote, but I know that it doesn’t work.”
When asked about appropriate monetary limits above which she should be consulted, the mayor suggested amounts between D200,000 and D300,000: “It might be D200,000 or D300,000. I can’t answer why that is. What I did was make an effort to know what is going on, but it’s supposed to be a mandatory directive. It’s supposed to be a practice that must happen. In the language of the law, it must happen.”
Her testimony regarding the failure to implement financial controls included: “Now you have written several times, the CEO must follow, and it was never followed. Who is at fault? I can’t tell exactly.”
The testimony also revealed issues with delegation and payment authorization. Mayor Lowe acknowledged situations where staff members initiated financial requests using her authority without her direct involvement.
Additionally, the testimony addressed confusion about financial classifications. “We thought that it was an imprest,” she stated, referring to how certain payments were categorized by her team. An imprest system is typically used for small, urgent expenses that cannot wait for normal procurement procedures. However, Mayor Lowe later acknowledged that the issue stemmed from the choice of words, explaining that all payments were generally categorized as imprest, regardless of whether they met the criteria for urgent or emergency expenses. She added that this practice is still ongoing.
The testimony further addressed confusion about advisory roles versus decision-making authority. Mayor Lowe described consulting with the Chief Executive Officer on payment decisions, referring to “advisory input.” However, testimony revealed that “advice from the CEO is not binding.” When asked about rejections of her requests, Mayor Lowe stated that “more of her vouchers were rejected than approved,” although she acknowledged that she did not document these interactions.
Mayor Lowe’s testimony indicated that the problems at Banjul City Council were part of broader operational patterns. In one of her statements, she declared: “What I want to tell you is that the system is polluted. I’m not talking about others—I am specifically talking about my own council. You will not know some of the things that happened, but later I think all those things will be revealed.”
The mayor’s description of the council’s operational challenges included: “When we came into office, we didn’t even have a single page of handover notes, and most of us were new. If you check, probably 90% of what we have done was wrong. We were moving and doing things thinking, ‘Okay, these people were doing it like this, so let us follow them.’ That is how they were doing it, and that is how we were doing it.”
This cycle of inherited practices has created what the mayor described as a gap between legal requirements and operational reality. She acknowledged the guidance that proper legal frameworks could provide: “The law will guide you if you follow it. It’s not perfect—it has so many areas that need to be reviewed to help you in administration on a daily basis—but it’s more perfect than not having or not following regulations.”
The testimony also addressed Mayor Lowe’s knowledge about EU-funded projects within her jurisdiction. Her statement indicated the extent to which mayors have been informed about such activities: “I saw people who passed here before me—witnesses, more than 20 of them—talking about the EU project. I am at the city council, but I don’t know them. I have never met them. I only saw them sitting here before the commission.” This situation represents a gap in local government information sharing, as elected officials remained uninformed about major activities in their jurisdictions.
Throughout her testimony, Mayor Lowe acknowledged shortcomings in her knowledge and expressed a willingness to learn. She stated that the commission had helped her understand the importance of proper documentation and formal procedures. “From this commission I learned a lot, and I realized that writing is very important,” she testified.
She also conveyed appreciation for the commission’s role in shedding light on administrative processes. “What I want to assure you is the respect that I have for this commission and the appreciation that I have for this commission. It seems the commission came specifically for me to learn. I will have nothing to hide, and however difficult it is, I will tell you this is how it happened because I learned a lot,” she said.
In response to questions about her leadership, Mayor Lowe emphasized her approach to responsibility and transparency. “As a leader, you take responsibility. I take the responsibility. I used to sit in my room listening to this commission, and normally I learn a lot. I used to hear things that my council was not doing,” she explained. Reflecting on her role, she added, “I am the one sitting in this position. I don’t want to sit here and be very shameful and later try to make excuses. I would be very ashamed to do that here. I learned a lot, and as I said, what you learn as a leader—when you agree to do something, you need to make it clear.”
Mayor Rohey Malick Lowe’s testimony before the Local Government Commission of Inquiry provided information about local government administration in The Gambia. Her statements highlighted challenges related to legal framework implementation, mayoral authority, financial controls, and communication procedures. The testimony suggested that improvements in local governance would require both structural reforms and changes in operational culture. The commission’s ongoing work may inform future decisions on strengthening administrative practices in local councils.
