Churchill Falai Baldeh, former National Assembly member for Upper Fulladou West, Central River Region has reacted to the criticism of the 50% sale of Gamtel and Gamcel shares, by Dullo Bah, National Reconciliation Part (NRP) Campaign Manager, carried in the Monday September 3rd edition of The Point newspaper.
In The Point newspaper publication, Mr Dullo Bah stated that ‘the transaction should be revoked for the lack of legitimacy.

He added that, the IMF-World Bank-induced programme of privatisation of public corporations that The Gambia government purports to be implementing, as well as the National Act that established The Gambia Public Procurement Authority state that all sales of public properties must be tendered both nationally and internationally.

He further noted that since this conditions have never been met, the sale has thus been rendered illegal and the law was not respected in this case and urged the government and the buyers of the 50% shares of both Gamtel and Gamcel to revoke the arrangement’.

Reacting to these criticisms, Churchill Falai Baldeh urged Mr Dullo Bah to note that a government with an executive President has the full mandate to force changes whose effect impact positively on the mass or majority of people in terms of their needs or concerns.
According to him, the need for any given system to respond rapidly to any issue whose effect  may have some dangerous consequences cannot be over emphasised. 

“In such a case, no system can afford to wait for the full realisation of all the conditionalities before taking corrective action”, he said.
The former Upper Fulladou NAM further put it to Mr Dullo Bah that, the government’s action in the case, is based on national interest.

He further put it to him that politically, the APRC government has an obligation to deliver on its poverty alleviation programme and the demand for the critical human and financial resources must be ensured for that to happen otherwise those who voted for the party will begin to look for alternatives.

He welcomed such controversial issues saying “It is however healthy to encourage such thought provoking issues to increase public awareness which we hope was your intention”.