Cabinet was also briefed by the minister for Women, Children and Social Welfare on the current reforms and restructuring at the Ministry. The reforms are said to be part of efforts to promote the rights and welfare of women, children and all other vulnerable groups and to mainstream gender and children’s concerns in all sectors of the government.
Cabinet also discussed and approved a paper presented by the minister for Finance and Economic Affairs on the Draft Public Private Partnership Bill which intends to strengthen the smooth implementation of PPPs in The Gambia through; Public Private Partnerships project identification, selection and prioritisation procedures; establishment and management of a Public Private Partnerships agreement; local content and Gambian private sector participation in Public Private Partnerships projects; and Functions and roles of the different stakeholders to name a few.
However, the ministers for Finance and Health presented a joint paper on the Draft National Health Insurance Scheme Bill which aims to help reduce the burden of out-of-pocket expenditure by patients and to protect households from high spending by devising prepayment mechanisms such as National Health Insurance Scheme.
According to information reaching The Point, Cabinet also discussed and approved a paper by the minister for Finance on the promotion and reciprocal protection of investment agreement between the governments of The Gambia and the United Arab Emirates.
“The Vice President presented an Information paper on the outcome of the 2019 Staff Audit Exercise by the Personnel Management Office (PMO). The 2019 staff audit exercise was a follow-up to the 2017 staff audit. In both audits, government has been saved from paying substantial amounts of money to absentee staff as salaries.”
“Cabinet was informed that a number of measures are being taken to making the heads of department accountable for their payroll.”
“PMO is also working with the Accountant General’s Department to transfer the management of the government payroll to PMO in line with international best practices. In addition, appropriate actions are being taken including invoking Regulation 57 of the Public Service Commission to dismiss unidentified staff in the civil service as well as other necessary actions to address the anomalies with a view to minimising their reoccurrence in future.”
