A special session with Essa Bokarr Sey

Understanding the difference between criticism, apathy, loyalty and honesty where national interest is to remain the scale of duty and service must be balanced with sensitization. Citizens should  be constantly enaged through that very  sensitization to raise their awareness thus understand  what is partisan, non partisan, responsibility and  patriotism.  Why? Simply because national interest and national duty are usually not captured within the most appropriate mindset.

Although not all corrupt practices are done by politicians neither can they be totally exempted. Some of us have seen the need in zooming on the activities of so called technocrats within both the civil service and the private sector because when it comes to contracts a greater number of them  are interwoven not for national interest but personal gain. Managing direcrors, General Managers and CEOs and the like are of course not always truthful to the upper echelon that fixes or has fixed them on their seats. Now let’s enter their territory and expose what they would NOT like to be diagnozed. On matters like these every citizen has a vital role to play regardless of one's political affiliation, religion or any other social setting serving as that party's, person's or people's identity.

Today we will diagnose CONTRACTS as one biting factor that has been at the center stage of corruption or corrupt practices in most sub saharan African countries of course The Gambia's case is not an isolated one for every genuine reason.

ANALYSIS ON CONTRACTS

Contractors or vendors are in two folds in most cases. Once the demarche begins the following steps do either become illuminated or shaded paths leading to what is corrupt in what we  practice or what could be of benefit for the common good. Latter is usually what we all yearn for but unfortunately ends up being a mirage not an oaisis of success stories.

A case in point is that a novice should have what is called invoice value and sales tax. Where both are combined it equals to total invoice value. Best practice is that the salestax of 15% of the latter should be for the government.  Now, where the contractor fails to insert the salestax means he, she or they is/are still liable and is doing something illegal. To that effect, legally, ethically and morally speaking the sales tax must be paid to Government. Is that always the case with all contracts? The rest remains a guess for all of us. Without any doubt in one's mind, corruption is extremely damaging for investment. Worst case scenario is where the contractor is asked to give a kick back of 5 to 10% to any party or institution. What should we expect next? It becomes a problem for the contractor because they remain vulnerable to losses even before starting the work.  Ultimately that is how and why quality  fails in most projects. At this juncture offices or institutions like NAO national authorising officer have an important role to play between what obtains internally and the offices of donors especially those like the EU. Here is where whispers like  "ADB projects are usually easier than EU ones" do stem from. Observations like these are what the leadership should pay attention to and avoid seeing criticism otherwise!