The Barrow government has been criticised for “wasteful” expenditure on its embassies and consulates.

The government has projected a staggering D911,561,457 million as expenditure on its embassies and consulates around the world.

However, the leader of opposition All People’s Party, Ebrima Tabora Manneh described it as a “waste of resources” at the expense of poor Gambians struggling to make ends meet.

“We don’t need all these embassies and consulates around the world for such a small country like The Gambia. The country has a whole lots of needs than spending this huge amount of money on embassies and consulates,” Mr Manneh told Gambiana in an interview.

According to him, some Gambians living in the Western nations don’t even know some of the location of these embassies. 

He said the officials posted to these embassies are not doing their jobs as expected, adding that the government should have been closing some of the embassies instead of spending on them ‘wastefully’.

“The expenditure on these embassies and consulates are too much and I understand that the government wants to increase its embassies and consulates which is a waste of resources for the countey,” he added.

Reporting by Adama Makasuba