"There is a lot of revenue bypassing the national revenue structure, looking around Westfield and Bamboo, these are clusters for the black market of foreign exchange," he stressed during a debate over President Adama Barrow’s 2024 State of the Nation Address (SoNA).
"We have a revenue structure that is built and people employed to monitor; to ensure that trading as far as foreign currency is concerned, taxes are levied on institutions. Therefore, this market is supposed to go through such structures to make sure the government realises the revenue in this."
He indicated that the Central Bank and Finance Ministry need to be questioned on where these individuals access these hard foreign currencies. "We are all giving deaf ears and blind eye to this pressing issue that is slowly killing the country's economy," he pointed out.
He dwelled on the country's security asking the interior minister to explain how drugs enter the country, while emphasising on the importance of jealously guarding the borders.
"We are aware that drugs are taking the lives of our people. We should question how these drugs get in the country? It has to be protected from coming in before protecting people from abusing it."
He also stated that the government should do a civil service audit to know the civil service structure. "The number of people that are receiving salaries need to be known to avoid redundancy," he pointed out.
Commenting on the D10 million Assembly allocation to the Ministry of Fisheries for drilling of boreholes in the rural communities across the country, Hon Ceesay requests the list of beneficiary communities, the ones drilled but not built yet and the ones completed.
Hon. Lamin Gibba, the Member for Foni Kansala, reminded the Defence minister about a bill featured in Parliament which could strengthen the country's security. However, this bill, he said, is still hanging and still not brought back to Parliament.
He urged the Ministry to work on the bill and reintroduce it to the Assembly.
