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| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Momodou |
Posted - 06 Sep 2016 : 22:23:56
IS GAMBIA’S 25.1 BILLION DALASI DEBT PAYABLE?
EditorSeptember 6, 2016
QUESTION OF THE DAY
IS GAMBIA’S 25.1 BILLION DALASI DEBT PAYABLE?
http://www.foroyaa.gm/archives/11968
At end March 2015 the domestic debt of the country stood at 19.3 billion dalasis, it increased to 23.2 billion dalasis at end March 2016. Now it has increased to 25.1 billion dalasis. It is incredible that the domestic debt could increase by over 1.9 billion dalasis within a period of five months.
How will the country pay its growing debt in the face of the dwindling of exports which should generate the foreign exchange earning capacity of the country and boost the productive base? Poverty is likely to increase in the face of growing indebtedness. The Gambia is falling deeper in the abyss of being a heavily indebted poor country. The economic super power status claimed by the government is a myth. |
| 4 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Momodou |
Posted - 23 Sep 2016 : 14:59:20
PAC/PEC adopts Gov’t audited accounts
By Kaddijatou Jawo
Friday, September 23, 2016
http://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/article/pacpec-adopts-govt-audited-accounts
 The Public Accounts and Public Enterprises Committees (PAC/PEC) of the National Assembly Wednesday adopted the report on the update of the Audited Accounts of the Government of The Gambia for the year ended 2011 and the report on the Financial Statement and Audited Accounts of the Government for 2012 and 2013 respectively.
In his contribution, the National Assembly Member for Sami, Hon. Ousman Njie, said that according to the management letter on the payment vouchers it had revealed that D534,751.38 and D952, 800.75 for 2012 and 2013 respectively were still un-presented for verification as at end of the year 2013, as clearly stated between the audit queries and the management responses.
For this reason, Hon. Njie added, the committee needs detailed explanations on the un-presented documents for the total of D1,487,579.13.
Also in his contribution, the National Assembly Member for Illiassa, Hon. Lamin K. Jammeh raised several issues concerning the report.
He added that 2012 and 2013 accounts are “qualified accounts” which, he said, were often frowned upon on institutions or MBGs by the lawmakers.
“I will advise them to make sure they don’t come here with those accounts in the future,” he said.
Hon. Jammeh further cited the 2011 recommendations, which, he identified as the two major key challenges that are yet to be addressed and these are the confiscation of NAO vehicles, as mentioned to the Accountant General.
He suggested whether the ministry could provide them with documented responses to those queries.
The National Assembly Member for Banjul South, Hon. Alhagie Sillah, spoke on the problem of loan recovery and the need for the Ministry of Finance to have a maintenance policy to avoid maintenance problem.
Responding to some of the queries made by some NAMs, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Finance, Lamin Camara, said they were taking note of the issue of “qualified accounts”.
He said the Ministry of Finance is committed to ensuring that accounts are scrutinised.
He added that the commandeering of NAO vehicles is the mandate of the Ministry of Finance to stop NAO vehicles from commandeers.
These, he said, are directives they “don’t have the authority as a Ministry” to deny.
On the issue of the introduction of budget items, PS Camara said a budget is a policy document which had to be done within a framework based on the available resources.
Abdou Colley, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, in his statement on the deliberation, said: “In the budgeting process you may not be able to foresee all the budget lines and what happen is during the implementation you want to realise something and then you realised that there is no particular line where you can charge the ministries or agencies concerned; right to the Ministry of Finance and say I want to execute this but there is no budget line for this; can you create one for us.”
Minister Kolley noted further that his Ministry would instruct the Accountant General to create a budget line and do a virement from another approved line to fill into the created line and stay within the envelope that is approved.
Picture: Speaker Abdoulie Bojang
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| Momodou |
Posted - 23 Sep 2016 : 13:11:20
The accountability question
The Point Editorial: Thursday, September 22, 2016
http://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/article/the-accountability-question
The government audited financial statement for 2012-2013 tabled on Tuesday before lawmakers at the National Assembly by the Auditor General has revealed a lot about the accuracy or inaccuracy of the country’s domestic debt data, and lack of proper auditing of payment vouchers and other documents of the Central Bank of The Gambia in 2012 and 2013.
This has caused the Auditor General to reiterate the call or demand on the relevant authority to allow for proper auditing of such vouchers and documents at the Central Bank, henceforth.
Although the report of the Auditor General covered both the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of The Gambia, the latter, however, has a huge stake in the debt information and payment voucher challenges raised at the PAC/PEC session on Tuesday.
“There is a risk that domestic debt information by the Central Bank is not accurate and complete leading to misstatement of the financial statement,” the Auditor General said.
“We recommend that all domestic debt information is captured by the Ministry of Finance, and the documentation remained outstanding up to the time of finalising the report.”
Section 158 of the Financial Instructions was also quoted as stating that: “The originals of payment vouchers and supporting document will be filed in numerical order by month and year by the Treasury Directorate, to be available for audit and other inspection purposes.”
Talking also about payment vouchers and other documents such as credit and memos, the Auditor General said these vouchers and documents amounting to D175,466,433.64 for the year ended 2012 and payment vouchers amounting to D444,208,111.44 for the year ended 2013 were “not presented for audit”.
“We recommend that all payment vouchers are filed in numerical order by month and year as required by the Financial Instructions,” he said.
It is always essential that we are accountable for what we do, especially at the public domain where national resources are entrusted to public trustees.
In this case of the country’s debt information and payment voucher auditing, we couldn’t really determine what went wrong, or really pinpoint at anyone for the huge fiscal debt leap beyond the GDP ceiling in 2012 and 2013.
However, accurate national financial information and regular auditing must be respected and seen to be done, to always give a clear picture and fair outlook of our economy, as well as help the nation to plan its economic path well.
“It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do for which we are accountable.”
John Baptiste Moliere
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| Momodou |
Posted - 22 Sep 2016 : 09:30:27
Gambia’s Fiscal deficit exceeds GDP ceiling in 2012/ 2013 Auditor General
By MUHAMMED S. BAH
Foroyaa: September 21, 2016
http://www.foroyaa.gm/archives/12151
“Fiscal deficit should not be more than 3% of GDP and in 2012, it was 5.9%, and in 2013 it was 8.0%, a difference of 2.9% and karamba-touray-auditor-general5.0% , respectively,” said Mr. Karamba Touray, the Auditor General of The Gambia.
Mr. Touray made this disclosure on Tuesday 20 September 2016 when tabling before the country’s law makers the audited government accounts in the year 2012/2013 under review.
The Auditor General said the audit of the public debt also revealed worrying trends.
He said the public domestic debts should not be consistently higher than 200% of domestically generated government revenue.
“In 2012, it was 495.8% and in 2013 it was 503%,” revealed the Auditor General.
Explaining the implications, Mr. Touray said there is the risk that in future the Gambia Government may face difficulties in obtaining loans from prospective creditors.
He also noted that there is a risk that in future, debt repayments would be difficult as the rate of increase in public debt surpasses the rate of increase in revenue, given the current trends.
Another implication, he added, is that there is a risk that assessment criteria for determining concessional and semi concessional loans are not adhered to.
“We recommend that government exercise strong fiscal discipline by significantly reducing domestic debt borrowings. This will help in addressing the high cost and risk attached to repayment of interest from government revenue,” said the Auditor General.
Also present during the Auditor General’s presentation was Mr. Lamin Camara, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, who had earlier presented a report on queries and recommendations of the government audited accounts, together with senior officials of the ministry.
These reports are to be subjected to scrutiny by the members of the National Assembly today, Wednesday 21 September 2016.
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| Momodou |
Posted - 07 Sep 2016 : 15:11:59
Gambia’s debt stands at D25 Billion
The Point: Wednesday, September 07, 2016
(Tuesday September 06, 2016 Issue)
http://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/article/gambias-debt-stands-at-d25-billion
 The Gambia’s domestic debt has risen to D25.1 billion at end-June 2016, according to the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of The Gambia (CBG)
In a press release sent to this paper over the weekend, the MPC stated that whilst money supply contracted by 0.2 per cent in June 2016 compared to a growth of 11.9 per cent in June 2015, the country’s reserve money, the Central Bank’s operating target, grew by 18.6 per cent in the year to end-June 2016 from 19.7 per cent a year earlier.
“The domestic debt rose to D25.1 billion at end-June 2016 compared to D20.5 billion the same period last year,” the MPC report stated.
It said outstanding stock of Treasury bills and Sukuk Al Salam (SAS) combined, which accounted for 61.4 per cent of the debt, increased to D15.6 billion or 12.2 per cent from last year.
Whilst yields on the 91 day and 182 day treasury bills declined to 17.15 per cent and 17.83 per cent in June 2016 from 17.28 per cent and 18.44 per cent in June 2015, the report indicated, yield on the 364 day bills, on the other hand, rose to 21.85 per cent from 21.45 per cent a year ago.
“Yields on the 91 day and 182 day SAS declined to 17.5 per cent and 17.9 per cent in June 2016 compared to 17.6 per cent and 18.4 per cent respectively in June 2015. Yield on 364 day SAS, on the other hand, rose to 21.90 per cent from 20.54 per cent in June 2015,” the MPC report added.
Government Fiscal Operations
The Report stated that preliminary data on government fiscal operations for the first half of 2016 shows that total revenue and grants amounted to D4.29 billion (10.9 per cent of GDP) in the corresponding period a year earlier.
“Domestic revenue, which comprises tax and non-tax revenues, increased to D4.2 billion (9.8 per cent of GDP) compared to D3.9 billion (9.8 per cent of GDP) in the corresponding period a year earlier,” it stated. “Tax revenue grew by 7.6 per cent to D3.8 billion whilst non-tax revenue declined by 5.4 per cent to D345.1 million.”
The report further stated that total expenditure and net lending for the first half of 2016 amounted to D5.8 billion (13.7 per cent of GDP), higher than D5.5 billion (13.8 per cent of GDP) in the first half of 2015.
“Recurrent expenditure stood at D5.2 billion (12.3 per cent of GDP) or 33.0 per cent and 59.3 per cent increase in other charges and interest payments respectively.”
The overall budget deficit (including grants) widened to D1.5 billion (3.6 per cent of GDP) for the first half of 2016 compared to deficit of D1.2 billion (2.9 per cent of GDP) in the corresponding period a year earlier, the report stated, adding that the budget deficit (excluding grant) was D1.7 billion (3.9 per cent of GDP) from D1.6 billion (4.0 per cent of GDP) in the same period last year.
Inflation outlook
Referring to inflation in the country, the MPC report stated that consumer price inflation, as measured by the national consumer price index, declined slightly to 7.1 per cent in June 2016 from 7.2 per cent a year earlier, due “solely to the decline in food inflation”.
It stated: “Consumer food inflation decreased to 8.4 per cent in June 2016 from 9.1 per cent last year, largely reflecting the marked decrease in meat price inflation from 22.7 per cent in June 2015 to 14.1 per cent in June 2016.
“On the other hand, consumer price inflation of non-food products and services increased to 5.2 per cent in June 2016 from 4.3 per cent in June 2015.”
Considering the fact that the “decline in headline inflation solely due to the deceleration in food inflation, tight monetary conditions and relative stability in the domestic foreign exchange market, the risk to inflation outlook remains moderate”.
The MPC, therefore, considered the current stance of monetary policy “appropriate” and has decided “to leave the policy rate unchanged at 23 per cent”.
It said it will continue to monitor the economy and act accordingly should the situation change.
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