FOROYAA Newspaper (Serrekunda)
11 November 2009
editorial
No to Any Usurpation of the Powers of the National Assembly!!
Those appointed Deputy Ministers are increasing. It is important for a debate to start on whether the practice should be allowed to continue without being challenged. In that respect it is important to point out that a government which intends to be accountable would not look at one provision of the Constitution and exploit it to make a decision; on the contrary, it will look at the interconnection of all the provisions in order to make decisions that are irrefutable.
We believe that the executive may have misled itself to appoint Junior Ministers because of the provision of section 80 of the constitution. It reads: "Subject to this constitution and any act of the National Assembly the President may constitute any public office for the Gambia and make appointments to such office and terminate such appointments." This may be interpreted to mean that the President could even create the office of Junior Ministers without the input of Parliament, appoint the Junior Ministers and terminate any appointment, as he or she deems fit. This however would be a wrong interpretation once we look at section 151 of the Constitution which states that:
" No money shall be withdrawn from the consolidated fund except-
a)to meet expenditure charged on the fund by this Constitution or an Act of the National Assembly."
b) where the issue of that money has been authorised by an Appropriation Act, a supplementary Appropriation Act or in accordance with subsection (4) of this section." Subsection (4) deals with emergency expenditures in case Parliament fails to approve the budget on time.
It is therefore clear that the remuneration of Junior Ministers is not charged on the Fund by the Constitution or an Act of the National Assembly. In short, Section 68 of the Constitution has stated that "The president shall receive such salary and allowances as may be prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly." The same goes for the Ministers. Section 72 of the Constitution states that: "The Vice President and Ministers shall be entitled to such remuneration, allowances and other incidents of office as may be prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly." There is however no provision for the salaries of Junior Ministers to be determined by an Act of the National Assembly. We have also looked at the Approved budget for 2009 and there is no Provision for the remuneration of Junior Ministers in the 2009 Appropriation Act.
It goes without saying that Section 80 of the Constitution makes provision for the President to constitute a Public Office. The Constitution is clear on what public office means. It includes an office the emoluments which are paid directly from the consolidated revenue fund or directly out of moneys provided by an Act of the National Assembly.." as provided by section 230 of the Constitution. The Act establishing the Office of Junior Minister or an amendment to the Constitution to create the office of Junior Minister should precede the establishment of the office and any subsequent appointment.
We therefore call on the Attorney General to subject the issue to a debate in cabinet so that the dictates of the constitution are respected.
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