Allocate Funds to Favour Development - Lawyer Darboe

Lawyer Ousainou Darboe, the leader of the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) has stressed that there is a necessity to have the salaries of the executive slashed and put into development projects, alleging  that they (the Executive) always travel abroad and receive fat allowances.

Mr Darboe was speaking on Saturday in Brikama at a political rally organised by the wing of the party.

He indicated that a political position should be a position of sacrifice and not to amass riches.

“A political position should not be a position to amass riches. Anyone who wishes to go into politics should put this in mind that he will be going to work for the people. You should not go into it for riches,” he said.

Turning to the recently approved budget for 2009, Mr. Darboe said what has been allocated for the Office of the President is unnecessarily too much. He said what has been allocated to the Office of the President has more than doubled what had been allocated for Agriculture, Tourism and Fisheries combined.

He noted that a lot should have been allocated to these sectors as he maintained that they are, undeniably, the backbone of the country’s economy.

“Before allocating this huge amount of money to the Office of the President, only to pay fat allowances, it should have been allocated to promote the country’s tourism sector,” he said.

He added that what should bring development is reduced while the allocation to the Office of the President is increasing.

A detailed report of the UDP Brikama meeting will come in our subsequent editions.