The motion came up after the Report of the National Assembly Select Committee on Regional Government, Lands, Ombudsman and IEC was laid on ‘the oversight to institutions and Project Sites’ from January 29 to 6 February 2025.
The report revealed that The Select Committee could not conduct any activity with the Council staff as the Chairman, the Deputy as well as the Councilors were not found on the ground, even though they were informed of the visit.
It further stated: “It is important to note that the same Council demonstrated unruly behaviour and lack of compliance on the same Committee during the 2022 nationwide tour.
“Therefore, their absence led to the postponement of discussions and cancellation of project site visits within that jurisdiction. The Committee Members deemed this behaviour as a ‘No-Show’’ situation and felt very disappointed, thus decided to report the matter to the National Assembly for redress.”
Members of the Assembly expressed disappointment with the council and called for a special committee to be created to investigate the matter.
Hon. Fabakary Tombong Jatta, Speaker of Parliament, lamented and asserted that the Assembly is the representative of the nation: “We are the last hope of our people. If we fail or start lamenting on issues that are bad, we are failing our people. All the necessary powers are vested in the institution to do good work for the people.
“From the report, this action has happened for the second time - this is complete contempt of the National Assembly; therefore, it must be put to an end.”
He added: “We have to carve a way. What I am going to recommend is to have a special select committee created for this purpose to look into it and make recommendations to plenary.”
Member for Upper Saloum, Hon. Alhagie Mbowe, highlighted further: “This is the second time, in fact the last time; it seemed one of them wanted to fight one of the committee members.
“And I think we need to put a stop to it now; therefore, we need to create a special committee and call all of them in the Parliament to investigate and find out why they are behaving the way they behave.
“And whatever needs to be done in terms of disciplinary measures, to the maximum, the Parliament will put that on them.”
After a long and heated debate from various members, Hon. Lamin Ceesay, Member for Kiang West, moved the motion on 53K of the Assembly’s standing orders to establish a special select committee to investigate the matter and issues raised about Janjanbureh Area Council in the local government committee report.
He added that “the selected committee should investigate and report back to plenary within three months“.
This decision was agreed upon by all members.
