Column | On the Proposed Anti-Corruption Commission – Part 2
… continued from Part 1
By Saul Saidykhan
Genuine patriots among the ordinary citizenry and group leaders are confounded as to how to check corruption before it destroys the country irreparably.
To understand the challenges, let’s remember the most common ways corrupt Gambians steal from or shortchange the citizens:
1.Outright theft of public resources at revenue collection points (ports of entry into the country, or at central government/Municipal Ministries, Departments, and Agencies for services.
- Hiring unqualified or tainted personnel.
- Hiring ghost workers.
- Promotions based on nepotism.
- Public procurement fraud.
- Inflating the cost of public contracts for kickback.
- Awarding public works contracts opaquely to incompetent or nonexistent companies.
- Currency manipulation through the Central Bank.
- Deliberately rendering public Oversight or Regulatory agencies ineffective; and
- Inducing Legislative, Judicial, and law enforcement agents to look the other way.
Given these facts, here is what would be an honest advertisement for the CRUCIAL jobs of Chairman and Commissioners of the proposed Gambia Anti-Corruption Commission if we had a sincere leader ready to fight corruption:
“Applications are invited from suitably qualified Gambians for the position of Chairman of the Gambia Anti-Corruption Commission. In addition to possessing credentials from a recognized tertiary institution and a spotless record of integrity and competence, the candidate must meet the following requirements – he/she cannot be born of a human; cannot have a spouse, child/children, siblings, blood relatives, friends, in-laws, school mates, neighbors, or interpersonal relationship with any other Gambian. Candidates who do not meet ALL these minimum requirements will NOT be considered for this position.”
Now, ALL astute readers at this point know that such a Gambian does NOT exist which is exactly my point! Those promoting this anticorruption commission idea are either doing so out of idealism/naivete, the lack of a comprehensive understanding of the hydra-headed monster we’re facing, or deception.
(Just behold Barrow openly declaring that “corruption is as old as humanity” while promising to establish a commission to fight it!) It doesn’t get more perverse than that.
So, what do I think is a better alternative to establishing another expensive and USELESS commission?
… to be continued in Part 3.
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Publish [14:10, 13/02/2025]