Posted by By Bekai Njie
The Gambia government has imposed temporal travel restrictions on all government funded trips except for essential statutory meetings with effect from October, 1st 2018, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs announced on Thursday.
This travel restriction would continue for the rest of the fiscal year.
According to a press release, this move is necessitated by the overall fiscal slippages on travels and to ensure expenses are within the overall expenditure celling of the 2018 budget as approved by the National Assembly.
The measure, the release added, is needed to free-up spending for social service such as Education, Health and to engender economic growth and macroeconomic stability. The ban also applies to all Non-sub-vented agencies, state-owned enterprises and Central Bank of The Gambia.
The move is part of the broader government efforts of fiscal consolidation across all levels of government. The expanded scope, the release went on, will improve the financial position of all relevant institutions to enable them to pay statutory tax payments and potential dividends to government, where applicable.
Finance Minister, Mambury Njie, has recently told lawmakers that the government has spent over D239 million on travels from January to July this year.