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Screensize: 640 x 480 800 x 600 1024 x 768 1280 x 1024 UserName: Password: Format Mode: Basic  Help  Prompt  Format: Videos: Font Andale Mono Arial Arial Black Book Antiqua Century Gothic Comic Sans MS Courier New Georgia Impact Lucida Console Script MT Bold Stencil Tahoma Times New Roman Trebuchet MS Verdana   Size 1 2 3 4 5 6   Color Black Red Yellow Pink Green Orange Purple Blue Beige Brown Teal Navy Maroon LimeGreen Message: * HTML is OFF * Forum Code is ON Smilies [quote][i]Originally posted by Momodou[/i] [br][b][size=4]Kudos to the Executive and the Legislature for Creating the National Assembly Service Act[/size=4] By Madi Jobarteh[/b] The Gambia Government deserves utmost commendation for the creation of the National Assembly Service Act, which is to effectively establish and guarantee the autonomy of the National Assembly as an independent organ of the State. The Constitution of the Gambia envisages separation of powers between the Legislature, Executive and the Judiciary. Yet since Independence in 1970, this principle is not backed by law as the National Assembly never had total control over its own leadership, management, resources, services and operations. But on July 28, the National Assembly Bill was passed by NAMs and within two weeks it was assented to by the President making it a full-fledged law. This demonstrates a unique commitment to ensuring the full autonomy of the parliament for which both the Executive and National Assembly deserve total commendation. In fact, Pres. Barrow deserves much more commendation simply because no executive president easily wishes to have an independent parliament. Presidents will always like to have a parliament they can control and turn them into a rubber stamp entity so that they will not be held accountable. Therefore, kudos to Pres. Adama Barrow for this huge achievement which tantamount to indeed completing and fully establishing the Gambia as a truly democratic republic. The foundation of a republic is an independent parliament which is the most important national institution. The parliament is the base of the power and will of the people hence the life and destiny of a republic rests on no one more than the parliament. Therefore, with this National Assembly Act, we can proudly claim that the journey that began in 1970 to make the Gambia a republic has today fully been accomplished. What does this mean for the National Assembly Members and citizens? To me, this means our Speaker and NAMs must first of all recognise the historic and sacred decision they have taken to create this bill. This act places on their heads and hands a sacred duty to uplift the Gambia as a true republic in which the National Assembly holds the unique duty to make or break this country. If NAMs fail in their duty to uphold their leadership and responsibilities as set out in the Constitution, then this republic will fail. But if they perform their functions as per the responsibilities put on them by the Constitution, then they will salvage the Gambia into a true and advanced republic. The National Assembly Services Act has created the National Assembly Service as a legal entity charged with the responsibility to provide support in any form to NAMs in performing their legislative functions. The Act also creates the National Assembly Authority as the governing body of the parliament comprising the Speaker as chair, four other NAMs and the Clerk as Secretary. Essentially the Act gives power to the National Assembly to run its own affairs including appointing its own staff. Above all, the Act now places the budget of the Assembly in its own hands. It states that the annual estimates of expenditure of the National Assembly Service shall be prepared by the Clerk to be submitted to the President, who will then present it to the National Assembly untouched, but may attach his comments or observations. This is hugely significant simply because one of the reasons that the Executive always had control over the National Assembly was the fact that their budget is determined by the Executive. That was a mockery to the concept of separation of powers in a democratic republic. This bill has ended that mockery by empowering the National Assembly to control their own resources. In fact, the National Assembly shall now have its own account in the Central Bank. With this Act, Members of the National Assembly now have no excuse not to exert their full powers and employ all of the tools at their disposal to ensure that there is good governance in the Gambia. One of the primary functions of the National Assembly is oversight, i.e. to check the Executive to ensure that not only are they judiciously managing public resources transparently, but also, they are performing their functions in a way that they are positively impacting the lives of citizens. This means NAMs should ensure that they scrutinise every aspect of the public sector to ensure that institutions are delivering to the people. The intolerable levels of poverty, deprivation, corruption and poor service delivery in this country is because of the lack of, or limited accountability of public institutions and their officials by the National Assembly. The Gambia is not a poor country, rather we are endowed with all of the resources and opportunities necessary to make this country one of the most advanced on earth. The only reason this country is hapless as it is, is simply because of the lack of accountability, which in other words, means since Independence it is the National Assembly, as the foremost accountability institution in the country, has been failing to perform their accountability role effectively. With this Act, there is no excuse anymore for them to fail to act. For The Gambia Our Homeland [/quote]   Check here to include your profile signature.