The National Assembly is considering sanctions against the Janjanbureh Area Council for alleged contempt after council officials reportedly failed to cooperate with the House Select Committee in exercising its oversight function.

Sulayman Jammeh, the chairman of the Select Committee on Regional Governments, Lands and Ombudsman, who also serves as the member for Bundungka Kunda, expressed disappointment with the council, stating that none of its staff members were present when his team visited their office during a tour of several institutions to examine projects, despite having officially informed them beforehand.

He described the council’s actions as “unruly behaviour” and noted that the same council had committed a similar violation in 2022 with the House Committee.

“Therefore, their absence led to the postponement and cancellation of project site visits within the jurisdiction. The committee deems this behaviour a no-show, and we are very disappointed. We have decided to report the matter to the National Assembly,” he told Parliament.

In their recommendation, Mr Jammeh proposed that the council chairman and councillors be summoned by Parliament over their no-show behaviour.

He recommended: “The chairman of Janjanbureh Area Council and all its councillors should be summoned by the National Assembly over the no-show situation that they caused at the time of the visit,” he read out the request before his colleagues.

For his part, Lamin Ceesay, the member for Kiang West constituency, proposed sanctions against the council officials for “contempt of Parliament.” He argued that they had violated the constitution “by preventing members of the National Assembly from interacting with them to perform oversight functions on government resources and representatives.”

“On this point, I submit that the council should be summoned to the National Assembly to answer questions regarding this issue, or we should sanction them,” he proposed.

By Adama Makasuba