Africa-Press – Gambia. Former Janneh Commission Lead Counsel Amie Bensouda has told the National Assembly’s Special Committee that lawmakers failed to fulfill their constitutional oversight duty after the commission submitted its findings.
Appearing before the committee on Thursday, Bensouda said the legislature should have monitored how the executive implemented the recommendations of the Janneh Commission.
“I say the National Assembly failed in its responsibility to supervise the executive,” she stated.
She explained that the commission’s recommendations were designed to guide The Gambia’s transition process and should have been reviewed and followed up on by lawmakers.
“The recommendations were what was supposed to help the transition, help the country correct its course, and avoid the mistakes that were made,” she said.
Bensouda further noted that there was no parliamentary oversight on the government’s white paper or on subsequent actions taken by the executive.
“There was no accountability as far as the white paper was concerned,” she added.
According to her, many of the issues that are now being revisited—such as the management and disposal of recovered assets—should have been resolved years ago through proper National Assembly supervision. “Investigating whether vehicles were properly sold six or seven years ago, for me, that’s a distraction,” she said.
While acknowledging that the government accepted most of the recommendations for implementation, Bensouda stressed that the real failure lay in the lack of follow-up. “In terms of following up and implementing those recommendations, there has been a major failure,” she concluded.
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