During yesterday’s debate, Hon. Njai argued that D36 million was too much to be budgeted for the Speaker’s Office.
“Thirty-six (36) million dalasi is extreme to be budgeted for salary increment alone for the Speaker’s Office. We should consider the life and livelihood of our children,” she argued. “We should be investing in education and health rather than paying and feeding ourselves out of our ordinary people of the country.”
“To see the salary of the Speaker increased from D658,534.00 to D1,560,000 (one million five hundred and sixty) is shameful, and I am ashamed to be called a parliamentarian. We should be reminded that we are here to serve our people and not to feed and enrich ourselves from our electorates’ money,” she stated.
The Banjul South lawmaker justified her point of argument, saying that the constitution states: ‘We should not enrich ourselves in any way’ and increase our salaries. She added “we are going against the constitution because we are enriching ourselves.”
She pointed out that ministers should be competent enough to advise the president on any policy about their ministries. She noted that the president should stop appointing advisers or consider sacking ministers; “and stop wasting resources by paying those two sets who serve the same purpose,” she declared.
She calls on the president to act on the recommendations of the TRRC. “We suffered for 22 years and the fact that there were no budget allocations for implementing the recommendations in 2022 and also in 2023 is showing that he is not ready to act on it. I call on you to implement these recommendations to prevail justice,” Hon Njai noted.
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