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MADIBA
United Kingdom
1275 Posts |
 Posted - 21 Nov 2006 : 21:00:44
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quote:
Originally posted by kondorong
there is nothing like a mafia group. if such a group really existed, then they must have been sanctioned to operate that way. Mbood used to work for the Finance ministry and infact i believe aslo for the National Investment Board. He may have worked in the Policy Analysis Unit. That is not very clear to me.
Changing the name NIB to PURA makes no difference. Infact this very government dissolved the parastatal watch dog called NIB when they came to power in 1994 but never filled the vacuum with any supervisory body. So do you blame Mr. Ndow for that. Hell no.
Abou Mboob indeed worked at Finance before heading the Gambia Divesture Agency. From there he became Gamtel MD. The so-called Mafia group is a group of people within the company that act as a lobby group in order words these are self-centred people who make things happen in the company irrespective of the dire consequences.
Are you saying that NIB was better than PURA, remember the give away of the then NTC by NIB etc etc
!<split from http://www.gambia.dk/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2389 > by Admin
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madiss |
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kondorong
Gambia
4380 Posts |
Posted - 21 Nov 2006 : 21:20:22
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I think you are opening a new topic. May be admin should seperate it and form one on Divstiture programme in the gambia. Its an interesting topic.
No. NIB was not much better but atleast provided some form of supervision. I dont want to fire all my bullets for now. PURA is just a joke. What have they done since inception. What did they say about the financing of the Under 17 by parastatals etc. I would like to know.
Well NTC and even GPMB were sold for just nothing. Privatisation did not work in the whole of sub-saharan africa unfortunately. Its just changing public goods into the hands few private individuals sadly. A market driven environment does which allows for competitive bidding is not available coupled with poor capital within those countries have only ended up being sold to foreign entities or if sold locally at give away prices. Either way it was a loss.
In the Gambia the total revenue generated in the sale of public enterprises is less than the annual loan repayment to international financial institutions. So the believe that privatsation leads to more revenue was the opposite in the Gambia. NIB needed a lot of improvement and authorty then but set the stage for further improvement. Closing it opened a pandora box. |
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ylowe
USA
217 Posts |
Posted - 22 Nov 2006 : 02:00:19
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| Kondorong, i think when NIB started privatising our institutions little was known about privatisation. |
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MADIBA
United Kingdom
1275 Posts |
Posted - 22 Nov 2006 : 11:54:11
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Sorry for coming back late. I just realised this morning that a new topic has been provided for this thread. Konds,Make sure that all your bullets are not fired now . Actually i think you got some points in the way privatisation is done in Africa especially Gambia. I think PURA was not a replacement for the defunct NIB. The equivalent of the NIB today could be the Gambia investment and promotion free zone agency(GIPFZA). PURA has mandate to protect consumer interests from service providers in the areas of energy(NAWEC), telecoms(Gamtel), transport(GPA and GPTC). GIPFZA roles are to encourage investment and provide the enabling environment for investors. They also provide incentives such as free land allocation and taxes concessions. There is another agency which is the Gambia Divestiture Agency(GDA) which looks into the viability of state owned companies across sectors such as Telecoms(Gamtel), Energy(Nawec), Transport(GPA , GCAA,and GPTC) etc etc. This agency makes sure that these companies operate within their TORs and continuously looks at their viabilty. A representative of this agency sits on the boards of all those public entreprises. Company budgets pass by GDA for endorsement and onward transmission to Office of the President for final approval. Things like company pay rises, bonuses etc are blessed by GDA. So ridiculous budgets are hurriedly sent back to the companies for sanitising.
On PURA's performance, i concur that not much has been achieved. I think if my memory serves me right they became operational only three years ago. Most of their positions were not filled. Why? i don't know. Maybe Konds knows why. |
madiss |
Edited by - MADIBA on 22 Nov 2006 13:13:45 |
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kondorong
Gambia
4380 Posts |
Posted - 22 Nov 2006 : 18:08:24
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quote:
Originally posted by MADIBA
Sorry for coming back late. I just realised this morning that a new topic has been provided for this thread. Konds,Make sure that all your bullets are not fired now. Actually i think you got some points in the way privatisation is done in Africa especially Gambia. I think PURA was not a replacement for the defunct NIB. The equivalent of the NIB today could be the Gambia investment and promotion free zone agency(GIPFZA). PURA has mandate to protect consumer interests from service providers in the areas of energy(NAWEC), telecoms(Gamtel), transport(GPA and GPTC). GIPFZA roles are to encourage investment and provide the enabling environment for investors. They also provide incentives such as free land allocation and taxes concessions. There is another agency which is the Gambia Divestiture Agency(GDA) which looks into the viability of state owned companies across sectors such as Telecoms(Gamtel), Energy(Nawec), Transport(GPA , GCAA,and GPTC) etc etc. This agency makes sure that these companies operate within their TORs and continuously looks at their viabilty. A representative of this agency sits on the boards of all those public entreprises. Company budgets pass by GDA for endorsement and onward transmission to Office of the President for final approval. Things like company pay rises, bonuses etc are blessed by GDA. So ridiculous budgets are hurriedly sent back to the companies for sanitising.
On PURA's performance, i concur that not much has been achieved. I think if my memory serves me right they became operational only three years ago. Most of their positions were not filled. Why? i don't know. Maybe Konds knows why.
There are no ridiculous budgets. Its ineptitude at such board meetings where everyone tries to place his own people. I am not surprised that the positions are not filled. They are not likely because most who know better have all been fired. Such positions need independence thinking, which is not available now. I am happy that no sitting allowances are paid but monthly allowances. Such meetings never end because the longer it takes the more money they get in addition to their salaries.
I also believe that the PSC should be salaried to speed up decisions.
I have a working knowledge of the budgeting process, from parastatals to, ministries to boards and then to Presidents office. The budget goes to the Policy Analysis Unit, which is under the Presidents office, and not to the executive.
The policy analysis unit unfortunately has become an extension of the ministry of Finance, which is not supposed to be. Every one at that unit ends up at finance or is from Finance making an independent judgment difficult. The only exception is the current Director Mr. Camara who is from DOSTIE.
The problem is staff in this unit report to the Secretary General but is not within the Administrative Cadre but the Economist Cadre, which is regulated from the Finance ministry. Therefore the most important person at budget meetings is the representative from the Finance ministry as he "controls or influences" the rep. from the Divestiture department and the Policy Analysis Unit which is unfair. These two departments hardly challenge the Finanace representative who would have been their boss and holds the strings for promotion and future career development. The independence is not there.
In the civil service, ministries put up budgets, which are sent to PMO and specifically to the Management Services Division. At this stage they are proposals mainly on personnel whilst capital expenditure is done at Finance. Beyond this stage it goes to policy analysis unit and then reverts to finance for compilation called the ESTIMATES printed at printing department. This is the copy that is circulated at the National assembly when the finance minister reads the Budget Speech.
Cabinet of course reviews it before presentation at the national assembly.
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MADIBA
United Kingdom
1275 Posts |
Posted - 23 Nov 2006 : 00:44:21
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There are no ridiculous budgets.
Konds pls elaborate. Don't just stop there how do you mean?
From your narrative it looks like you were there many years ago. There is no longer printing dept, but National Printing Corporation which is old printing dept + Book Production and Material Resources Unit which was under Education Dept. |
madiss |
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kondorong
Gambia
4380 Posts |
Posted - 23 Nov 2006 : 00:59:50
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| Yoro Bawol has another BPMRU |
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kobo
United Kingdom
7765 Posts |
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