Freedom Newspaper (Raleigh, North Carolina)
11 March 2008
The Brikama Area Council is on the brink of total bankruptcy, as the Council is faced by budgetary problems. The Council could not pay staff salary last month, according to reliable information reaching the Freedom Newspaper. The Brikama Area Council, is finding it difficult to meet its financial obligations these days. As a result of the financial crisis, about 40 Council temporal staff have been laid off. These workers have had their services terminated with immediate effect.
The interim Council, which was partly headed by the Lamin Waa Juwara were said to have settled all debts owed to parastatals, such as GAMTEL and NAWEC, before handing over the Council to the new leadership.
But the new Chairman Sukaru Badjie, has inherited a cash-trapped Council. After paying all its debts to creditors, the Brikama Area Council was left with a reserve budget of half a million dalasis.
Barely few weeks, after the interim Council Committee Members handed office to the new Chairman Sukaru Badjie, the Council is faced with major cash shortage. Paying staff salaries on time is now becoming a major problem.
In view of the unforeseen economic uncertainty befalling the Council, the Council has resorted to applying for bank over drafts to take care of staff salaries and other pressing official needs. Our sources said the Council has also decided to downsize its staff, by firing 40 temporal workers. The move, they said was meant to save the Council's ailing budget, which is also almost in the red..
A senior staffer at the Council told the Freedom Newspaper the economic problem currently befalling the Council was largely responsible for what he calls "unscrupulous APRC militants" working there, whose main ambition was to divert tax collected from shop owners into their personal use. The Council staffer said millions of dalasis have found its way into the pockets of corrupt Council employees. He says evidently the Council was posed to face financial loss due to such corrupt practices.
Also among the problems faced by the Council, he went on was the un-reconciled Council daily expenditures. For example, he said some APRC youth working at President Jammeh's farm regularly collects money from the Council unaccounted for. He says such Council funds were supposed to take care of the feeding of these APRC supporters working at the President's farm. The Council insider said unless, the new management tackles corruption, the Council is bound to face financial problems
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