The committee brought together the two ministries to find solutions to remit the SIG and also know why it is not given and paid on time or quash and move toward a promising concept for the education sector.
Going by the records, the SIG is expected to impact the enrolment and dropout rates and performance by repealing all school levies and hurdles that could restrict Gambian youth from attending school yet it is struggling to regulate its standard.
Speaking at the committee meeting, permanent secretary of MoBSE, Ebrima Sisawo, highlighted the constraints of signing and getting the SIG from MoFEA on time which delays salaries and other essentials for teachers.
“It has been a nightmare getting the money from the ministry to be disposed on time and also getting the right amount. If you look at it; we are charging D100 per child for the whole year, but getting the national due is concerning and challenging; I don't think there was any right time when we were able to get the full SIG at a given time. Usually, when it is late we also get it at our level to pre-finance and these have been the challenges we’re facing for years now,” Mr Sisawo revealed.
Mr Sisawo further stated that delays on SIGs could lead to instance where teachers could be involved in robust financial mismanagement proceedings whereas they could be tempted to pre-finance it and fall into the wrong process which would contradict the audit reports. He said the assumption was that the finance would endorse the initiative of SIG since it was a drive that brought quality education which supports the economic growth of the country.
Meanwhile, the director of Budgets, Mustapha Samateh blamed MoBSE for hiring more teachers than the budgets allocated and for that instance; he said this forces them to shuttle everywhere to put monies together to pay normal salaries.
“We feel like the real issue of SIGs is not discussed. We have several meetings with the ministry on a way forward to address some of the lapses and one of them is that if you go to any school, anybody would tell you that most of the time the ones that benefit and control the SIGs in some schools are the principals and some called it P.I.G. as most of them are not trained to manage these funds,” Mr Samateh outlined.
Mr Samateh added that they are stuck at the report template which determines the auditorium for monitoring and evaluation concerns, where MoBSE brought in their template which they have to adopt.
However, the NA Committee on Education suggested that a recommendation be sent to the ministers on the topic of discussion as the two ministers need to be present to answer some of these questions.
The Committee claimed that the representatives were not giving the required answers.
