Gambia: Nams Promise to Summon Justice Minister Over Unpaid Funds Allocated to Victims

The members of the National Assembly Select Committee on Human Rights and Constitutional Matters on Saturday promised to summon the Minister of Justice over why only D50 million was paid to victims from the D245 million allocated to victims’ reparations since 2021.

The NAMs declared their intention bduring an engagement organised by the Gambia Centre for Victims of Human Rights Violations with the select committee. Held at the center, the day-long event brought together victims and NAMs to discuss and get updates.

The committee comprises Madi Ceesay, NAM for Serekunda West–who doubles as chair for the committee, Bakary Badjie, NAM for Foni Bintang, Muhammed Kanteh, NAM for Busumbala and Lamin Ceesay, NAM for Kiang West.

According to the centre, the government has disbursed only 50 million dalasis as part of the funds allocated to the victims.

This comes when journalist Yusef Taylor gave a breakdown of the allocations made since 2021 and questioned NAMs why only D50 million was paid to victims instead of the D245 million allocated.

In responding to this question, Madi Ceesay, vowed to take immediate action to ensure the justice minister is held accountable. He said the AG will be invited to the parliamentary committee to explain, adding that in other jurisdictions, they have what is called post-legislative accountability or scrutiny where ‘you pass a law after some time, you come up and find out what has happened’.

“So, your analysis is very interesting, D245 million allocated from the past years,” remarked Ceesay

He added: “These are critical questions. To confront the minister, I can assure you that is going to be our first action. A parliamentary question as to why has the government allocated over D245 million to victims and only 50 was given?”

“The minister will explain, and from there, other members of the parliament on the floor would take the scrutiny. So, that is going to be our number one action–that is post-legislative scrutiny. We will start with that and see what we can do after,” he says.

Bakary Badjie, the NAM for Bintang, agreed with the chair.

Muhammed Kanteh, Busumbala NAM, weighed in on the matter, saying there were previous parliamentary questions to this effect.

“I remember putting a parliamentary question to this ……but the answers are always will be…….then there was no reparations Act. There was no reparations commission established and the commissioners were not also appointed at that time. But now, we have all these in place, to be honest, members will give a strict adherence to this and we’ll see whether what we have allocated this time around will be given to the victims and we will definitely hold them accountable,” he remarked.

Lamin Ceesay, Kiang West NAM advised the centre to maintain independence and tap funds from other independent organizations instead of depending only on government subvention.

“Moreover, approved budgets do not necessarily mean funds are available, but victims strongly believe money was available but probably the ministry diverted to other areas,” he added.

Despite the significant progress and achievements made to date, Kebba Jome, Head of program at the Victims Center lamented challenges in ensuring its effective and efficient operation.

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He asked why the process of the implementation of the TRRC recommendations is slow, saying only 16 out of the 265 TRRC recommendations were being implemented.

Jome lamented the delay in the establishment of the National Reparations and Reconciliation Commissions as well as the forensic identification of the remains of the November 11, 1994 incident, which are still lying at the mortuary of the EFSTH in Banjul.

The head of the program further blamed the government for not speeding up the process of the exhumation of other victims who were killed by junglers and buried at various locations in the country and outside the country.

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