Ebrima, thanks for forwarding this to G_L. I just glanced at the lengthy
document for the first time. Be rest assured that I will study it during the
course of the next weekend and see how this government continues to fail the
Gambian people. Suffice for me to say at this stage that I was not
encouraged with the little I saw from Famara Jatta. I could not find a
single sector that the government did not register a decline or failure to
meet projections. This is pathetic. Knowing these incompetent functionaries
(Jatta et al), am sure their projections were very modest (conservative). So
it speaks volumes if they say that they did not meet those benchmarks they
set for themselves. These people did not have anything to offer us except
misery. What is the point in reporting increased output in groundnut
production if the farmers are not given a conducive environment to sell
their nuts? Ebrima, I was also particularly struck by the magnitude of our
debt burden. This is where such silly economist words like 'staggering'
should be used. I hope the opposition back home will challenge Jatta to
itemize this debt burden. Jatta should be asked to account for the almost
US$200 million that came into the country in the last seven years. May be
some economists on the List can tell us the rationale behind Jatta's
decision to use stats from 1992 and not 1994. Jatta should be asked to
isolate the amount Yaya's government borrowed and explain where Yaya and his
cohorts put that money. US$200 million is a lot of money and I can safely
predict that Yaya's corrupt government borrowed 80% of the amount. What can
they show for it? An airport terminal building that is leaking. A
refurbished state house. A road in the middle of no where ordinary Gambians
go. The list of silly projects goes on. Instead of solving the nation's
energy problem, building roads ordinary Gambians can use to go to work,
building low income houses etc., corrupt civil servants use our scarce
resources to finance silly trips abroad and collude in building hefty
foreign bank accounts for Yaya. Ebrima, there is massive fraud going on in
the country. The major culprits are the likes of Famara Jatta and those so
called intellectuals behind a mental midget like Yaya. Today, if we
challenged Jatta, he would not be able to tell us how to manage a viable
economy in The Gambia. These people have neither the wherewithal, not the
integrity to run a country with a thug like Yaya at the helm. They are not
prepared to do what it would take to turn things around. I can guarantee
that if these people were to stay till next year (which will not happen),
Jatta will be back with another dismal report. There will be many declines
and in areas where there are improvements, they will fail to meet modest
projections. Just how is Jatta going to succeed in reducing both the
internal and external debt burdens at the same time that they are reducing
taxes and increasing spending to reduce poverty? Can't happen. Especially in
an environment where there is no incentive for people to be more productive.
Especially also, at a stage when Jatta is telling us that our major sectors
(agriculture and tourism) are showing declined earnings. Let us for one
moment probe into how our government services (reduces) its external loans.
Ordinarily, when a payment is due, Central Bank should use part of our
reserves (built mainly from grants and loans) to service our external debt
burden. What our rogue government does, is anybody's guess. So in other
words, we are borrowing to pay debts. The Central Bank can also get dalasis
which it would convert to foreign currencies before depositing the money in
foreign accounts (reserves). This has the dual purpose of helping to build
up the reserves and also getting rid of excess dalasis in the economy. But
what they do not tell you is that this money comes mainly from internal
lenders (commercial banks and SSHFC). So here again, we are borrowing to pay
off debts. Nothing but a Ponzy Scheme. Paying old lenders with money from
new lenders. Ebrima, it is not every year that we will be able to sell
Atlantic Hotel and pay some of our debtors. So reducing the internal debt
burden would tantamount to not paying civil servant salaries. This so called
'internal debt' is just a fancy way of describing the money government gets
from the sale of treasury bills. In my opinion, this phenomenon is the major
reason why commercial banks cannot play a major role in private sector
development. Ebrima, private businessmen compete with the government for
loans from the banks and SSHFC. It is just logical that when that happens,
the government wins, because it lures the banks with a very high interest
rate and a guarantee that they will get paid. Why would the banks risk
lending to a private businessman at ridiculously high interest rates when
they can get a 19% return from the government that technically cannot go
bankrupt? Yaya and Jatta cannot solve this conundrum. If they forego the
money they get from Standard Bank through treasury bills, they will not be
able to pay salaries and pay down the external national debt. On the other
hand, so long as Standard Chartered can make a cool 19% from the government,
they will not lend to ordinary Gambians if they are not Amadou Samba or
Charbel Elhajj. So local lenders cannot support a private sector led growth.
Ebrima, I will leave the tax (fiscal issues) to more seasoned economists or
to a later day. At this stage I will just say that massive fraud also goes
on in that domain. Take the cost of gas for instance.  Almost 75% of the
cost of gas in the country goes to the government in one form of tax or the
other. The high cost of this essential commodity is one of the major causes
of our poor stage of development. When Famara Jatta talks about the hike in
oil prices worldwide, what he does not say is that those price hikes have
little or no bearing on the price of gas in The Gambia. What he should talk
about, is the size of the tax slapped on the price of gas that is imported
into the country. What he also does not talk about, is the over-heads oil
companies pass on to consumer as a result of bribes paid to finance
ministers. African countries are addicted to this tax. There is nothing
wrong in collecting taxes. But, for Heaven's sake, put the money into good
use. It would have been acceptable to most Gambians if their tax dalasis
were used to build better roads (as opposed to dead traps) from up country
to Banjul (rather than from Yundum airport to the hotels). Most people would
also live with their tax dalasis going towards buying better electricity
generating equipment. But the reality on the ground, is that we have
incompetent civil servants who spend their days seeking creative means of
finding trips to go abroad and receive allowances from the government rather
than finding ways to contribute to our national development. Let me hasten
to add that I do not paint all civil servants with the same brush. Those
without a trace of integrity know themselves. What we also have, are
nonentities like Yaya who did not even have a complete high school education
telling professionals what to do. Yaya does not know a darn thing about how
to run an economy. Under normal circumstances, he should have been relying
on Famara Jatta to advise him in this field. But apart from the daunting
task one would face when trying to educate a clue-less moron like Yaya,
people like Jatta are too scared to think straight. These people have no
professional integrity. The civil servants at Central Bank and Finance know
that what is going on is not right. But you will not hear a single dissent
from these puppets. But they should realize that we are not sleeping. When
we get rid of Yaya, they will all account for their actions. Jatta will be
asked to swallow every false promise he gave to the Gambian people. Central
Bank officials with half a million dalasis loans used to build mansions next
to huts in Kololi and Kotu will be asked to justify why poor farmers live in
huts as their next door neighbors while they use tax payers' money (not
their salaries) to build mansions. Ebrima. I thank you again for forwarding
this material. Watch this space after I digest Jatta's report.
KB


>From: Ebrima Ceesay <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Read the Budget Speech 2001
>Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2001 20:31:32 -0000
>

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