Abdoulie Nyockeh made these remarks during a five day media personnel training held at NaNa.
According to Mr. Nyockeh, building the capacity of journalists is geared towards contributing to national development. He therefore returned gratitude to the African Development Bank for providing the funding in empowering media personnel to have requisite knowledge on the roles and mandates of the Gambia Public Procurement Act.
The objective of the training was to building the capacity of the media personnel particularly the members of the NFTR to better report on issues relating to procurement.
Mr. Nyockeh said the media plays a critical role in creating awareness in advocating for tax payment; thus the objective of the NFTR is to enhance the competence of Gambian journalists in business, finance and tax reporting in data journalism.
He also cited that the objective is also to engage government and the private sector to be tax compliant and hold them accountable for their tax obligation.
For Media practitioners to play an effective and efficient role in informing and educating the general public, the NFTR President said there is need for capacity building for media practitioners in all sectors.
“Therefore, we value support, involvement and training on matters that are relevant to our work. It is the reason we cherish the relationship with the African Development Bank through the Gambia Public Procurement Authority GPPA.”
“I have no doubt that this forum will accord journalists the opportunity to have in-depth knowledge on the legal instruments embedded on the GPPA Regulation in order to effectively report on issues affecting our business industry,” Mr. Nyockeh stated.
Mr. Nyockeh commended the management and staffs of the Gambia Public Procurement Authority (GPPA) for empowering and supporting journalists to understand the Principles of Public Procurement Act and procedure in order to disseminate factual information on the subject matter.
He cited that the importance of the support by the GPPA Management cannot be over emphasised as it enhances the capacity of journalists on how to effectively and efficiently report on the GPPA operations.
One of our expectations at the end of this five days training is that journalists will be equipped with the requisite knowledge on the GPPA Principles Act and other issues related to procurement compliance.
“The essence of forum was to bring the fourth estate, who are very instrumental in sensitising and educating the general public on issues of concern to national development with the view to exposing them on the GPPA Act.”
