By Kumba Leigh
Representatives from the National Assembly, office of the Accountant General, Auditor General, National Democratic Institute, Civil Society Organizations, the media and the Open Society Platform The Gambia (OSPG) among other stakeholders recently held a furom to deliberate on issues of the National Gender Policy, institutionalizing good governance, accountability and transparency of institutions at a local hotel in Senegambia.
Mr. Ismaila Jarju, Chairperson of Open Society Platform The Gambia’s Executive Committee, in his statement described the occasion as historic milestone in Gambia’s journey to institutionalizing good governance, particularly accountability, transparency and inclusive reform processes.
He said such an event is a significant opportunity to develop a joint road map for implementation with support from the country’s development partners like the World Bank, African Development Bank, IMF and others, to ensure prudent financial transparency benefit for The Gambian people.
“The project is designed to support The Gambia Government to take concrete steps to address some of the structural and policy challenges that will promote open governance in The Gambia,’’ he said.
Mr. Jarju asserted that such coordination will help enhance interagency coordination, sharing of information and working with Civil Society to address key national issues like fiscal transparency and tackling corruption and corrupt practices.
“It is important to note that this project is part of our larger portfolio of programmes that aims to enhance social accountability through active citizen participation such as Integrated Safeguard and Security (ISS), and a mechanism monitoring of projects that OSPG is working with African Development Bank and World Bank,’’ he explained.
Mr.Jarju called on the government and the National Assembly to act swiftly to enact the Anti-Corruption Bill 2019 and operationalize the Access to Information law, to address corruption and to fulfill the right to information as enshrined in the 1997 Constitution.
