The Ombudsman has told the Public Enterprise Committee in its 2015, 2016 and 2017 activity reports that its assets declaration targets top government officials for now.

Ombudsman on Wednesday presented its 3 years activity reports before lawmaker’s that awaits scrutiny and approval.

Meanwhile, Section 223 of the Constitution of the Republic of The Gambia requires all public officers to submit to the Ombudsman a written declaration of their properties and assets directly or indirectly.

And in which a false declaration according to the Constitution in any form, shall be deemed to be a contravention of the code of conduct. 

In a fourteen page presentation, Fatou Njie-Jallow said “the target groups currently for a start is mainly top officers from public institutions and parastatals, namely permanent secretaries, deputy permanent secretaries, directors, deputy directors from government institutions and parastatals.”

She said a total of 180 assets declaration forms were issued and 124 completed properly and returned, adding “another 41 forms have recently been distributed and the deadline is yet to come.”

Mrs. Njie-Jallow identified some benefits for declaring assets by public officials saying “it increases transparency and trust of citizens in public administrations and protect public officers from false accusations.”

Further enumerating the benefits, she said it stimulates foreign direct investment and helps for the exposure of substantial unjust enrichment.

She added that this will help heads of public institution in preventing conflict of interest among their employees and promoting integrity within institutions and promote economic growth in the country.

However, she said her office faced challenges in the area of investigation, adding that “our main constraint is the delay in reply from some institutions despite that a time is issued.”

She however, urged institutions to train their personnel on proper storage and retrieval of files.

Reporting by Adama Makasuba