{"id":39403,"date":"2023-07-21T15:18:55","date_gmt":"2023-07-21T15:18:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/?p=39403"},"modified":"2023-07-21T15:49:22","modified_gmt":"2023-07-21T15:49:22","slug":"assembly-urged-to-reject-mortgaging-of-senegambia-bridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/assembly-urged-to-reject-mortgaging-of-senegambia-bridge","title":{"rendered":"Assembly urged to reject \u2018mortgaging\u2019 of Senegambia Bridge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. <\/strong><\/span>Retired Gambian international civil servant, Lamin Manneh, has urged the National Assembly to reject the government\u2019s plans to use Senegambia Bridge in a recycling agreement with Afria50.<\/b><\/p>\n

Manneh, a former staff of the African Development Bank, said: \u201cThey should know that this is not in our best interest because whatever infrastructure the government wants to build, they can build it at a cheaper rate. So, parliament should refuse to ratify this agreement because if they don\u2019t ratify it, the government cannot do anything about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He argued that if the Assembly approved the agreement and the government ended up mismanaging the money or using it on building roads and debt servicing, it would have a serious financial implication for the country.<\/p>\n

Manneh said that as a founding member of the Africa50, he would want them to succeed, but in a different way.<\/p>\n

He said nobody in his right sense will take a 15 percent interest loan to build infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t make any economic sense,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are calling it taking money upfront, but my understanding is that they are borrowing a certain amount against an asset, and it doesn\u2019t matter how you want to call it, it is mortgaging,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n

Finance minister<\/b><\/p>\n

Manneh advised the finance minister to be transparent and accountable to the Gambian people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the best thing the minister could do is release those documents so that we all see for ourselves and make up our minds on whether it is an MoU or an agreement because they are totally different things. I do know for a fact that they signed an MoU in January of this year. Did they sign a second MoU? What is it about? Nobody knows,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said the MoU is of serious concern to Gambians, especially those who know its implications.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt concerns our money; he is going to borrow on our behalf, and we are going to have to pay it back, so we need to know what he\u2019s borrowing. Do we agree with it or not? The country is already in a debt distress situation; if you\u2019re going to add to that, we need to know what you\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, the best thing for him to do is to publish that and be transparent because otherwise it will just be a conjecture and people will just be imagining things and spreading rumours,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Manneh said if the minister had signed an agreement, as he told CNBC, then it needed to go to the Assembly.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was telling the press on Saturday that this doesn\u2019t need to go to the Assembly and that the Public Finance Act authorises him to do certain transactions and sign agreements. Well, the minister will be well advised to go and listen to his government lawyers because he should know that if the Public Finance Act authorises him to circumvent what the constitution says, he is in trouble,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Manneh added that the minister should know that the constitution supersedes any act of parliament.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny good lawyer will tell him that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am going to go back and read the Public Finance Act because I do not believe that it will authorised him in any way to sign an agreement of this magnitude without going to parliament. That is not honour, and if he does, he is making himself liable to impeachment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Manneh added that if the minister doesn\u2019t seek ratification from the Assembly the document will not fly, and parliamentarians would then have the opportunity to either reprimand him or recommend his removal by the president.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that point, the president will have no choice but to remove him, so he should be careful about what he does and what he says. That said, if he did not sign an agreement, he would be well advised to discuss it with the Assembly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Gambia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. Retired Gambian international civil servant, Lamin Manneh, has urged the National Assembly to reject the government\u2019s plans to use Senegambia Bridge in a recycling agreement with Afria50. Manneh, a former staff of the African Development Bank, said: \u201cThey should know that this is not in our best interest because whatever infrastructure the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":39402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[2355,2361,260],"class_list":["post-39403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-gambia","tag-gambia"],"yoast_head":"\nAssembly urged to reject \u2018mortgaging\u2019 of Senegambia Bridge - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Retired Gambian international civil servant, Lamin Manneh, has urged the National Assembly to reject the government\u2019s ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/assembly-urged-to-reject-mortgaging-of-senegambia-bridge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Assembly urged to reject \u2018mortgaging\u2019 of Senegambia Bridge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Retired Gambian international civil servant, Lamin Manneh, has urged the National Assembly to reject the government\u2019s ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/assembly-urged-to-reject-mortgaging-of-senegambia-bridge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-07-21T15:18:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-07-21T15:49:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/07\/sm_1689932845.452546.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/assembly-urged-to-reject-mortgaging-of-senegambia-bridge#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/assembly-urged-to-reject-mortgaging-of-senegambia-bridge\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Assembly urged to reject \u2018mortgaging\u2019 of Senegambia Bridge\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-07-21T15:18:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-21T15:49:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/assembly-urged-to-reject-mortgaging-of-senegambia-bridge\"},\"wordCount\":679,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/assembly-urged-to-reject-mortgaging-of-senegambia-bridge#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/07\/sm_1689932845.452546.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Gambia\",\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/assembly-urged-to-reject-mortgaging-of-senegambia-bridge#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/assembly-urged-to-reject-mortgaging-of-senegambia-bridge\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/assembly-urged-to-reject-mortgaging-of-senegambia-bridge\",\"name\":\"Assembly urged to reject \u2018mortgaging\u2019 of Senegambia Bridge - 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