The Barrow government has lifted the travel restrictions on public officials for all government-funded trips after a review.

The government spokesperson, Ebrima Sankareh, confirmed the lifting of the travel restrictions to reporters yesterday.

The travel ban was imposed last October following a public outcry after the government was reported to have spent millions of dalasis on travels and per diems for public officials.

The ban covered all trips except “essential statutory meetings” and applied to all officials of government departments and state-owned enterprises.  

The Finance minister, Mamburay Njie, said last year in a press release that: “the travel ban is necessitated by the overall fiscal slippages on travels and to ensure expenses are within the overall travel expenditure ceiling of the 2018 budget as approved by the National Assembly.

“The measure is needed to free up spending for social services such as Education, Health to engender economic growth and micro-economic stability,”