Finance Minister Grilled in Parliament Over Incomplete Budget Report

Finance Minister Hon Seedy S. Keita © Askanwi

By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT

The Gambia’s Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Hon. Seedy S. Keita, came under fire in Parliament on the opening day of the Second Ordinary Session of 2025 for delivering what lawmakers described as an incomplete oral report on the 2025 Budget Implementation.

The Minister’s presentation, meant to cover the first quarter of the year, was immediately questioned by members of the National Assembly, who pressed him for a more detailed breakdown of government spending.

Hon. Sainey Jawara, Majority member for Upper Saloum, was the first to challenge the submission. “We want to know the expenditure of each Ministry—from your Ministry down to the last. The Agencies, the Departments—this is what we want to know. What each Ministry spent from our National Budget,” he said.

Independent Parliamentarian Hon. Fatoumatta Njie of Banjul South echoed similar concerns. However, Speaker Fabakary Tombong Jatta appeared to shield the Finance Minister from deeper scrutiny on at least two occasions.

In his response, Minister Keita clarified that the presentation was intended to provide a macro-level overview:
“Our understanding of this brief is at the macro level. If we go into the item-by-item, entity-by-entity breakdown, it becomes like the process of approving the budget itself. This presentation focuses on actual revenue and expenditure trends and whether revenues are in line or not,” he said, promising to consider more detailed reports in future sessions.

But Hon. Njie, a member of the Finance and Public Accounts Committee (FPAC), pushed back, reminding both the Speaker and the Minister that parliamentary procedure requires “a statement on implementation and monitoring—not a summary.” She reiterated Hon. Jawara’s call for a detailed expenditure report by Ministry.

Despite her insistence, Speaker Jatta dismissed the point, and the Finance Minister doubled down on his earlier stance:
“The format we’ve used is the norm. This isn’t a management account or quarterly account—it’s an oral presentation highlighting key aspects of budget execution,” Keita maintained.

Hon. Jawara also criticised the Finance Minister for the late submission of his report, noting that lawmakers had insufficient time to review the document and scrutinise its content. Speaker Jatta reminded both the Minister and the Office of the Clerk to ensure the timely submission of documents.

The Speaker also clarified that, according to the standing orders, the Finance Minister is only required to deliver an oral presentation, with written documents to follow:
“We expect that the presented document will be forwarded to the FPAC for further scrutiny by Parliament,” Jatta stated.

Surprisingly, Minority Leader Hon. Alhagie S. Darboe of Brikama North, who chairs the FPAC, did not call for a more comprehensive budget implementation report—despite the many calls for transparency during the session.

Askanwi readers may recall our previous reporting, which flagged the Finance Minister’s failure to comply with the Standing Orders requiring an oral presentation on budget implementation during every ordinary session. This issue has persisted since the second and third sessions of 2024 and again during the first session of 2025.

While lawmakers took issue with the Minister’s lack of detail, they stopped short of demanding a full expenditure report for the 2024 Budget—despite the Minister having failed to deliver it during the First Ordinary Session of 2025 on at least two occasions.

Source: Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs © Digitised by Askanwi

According to Minister Keita’s submission, total revenue collected between January and March 2025 amounted to D6.67 billion—D6.16 billion of which came from domestic tax revenue. No grants were received during this period. On the expenditure side, Government Local Fund and Net Lending totalled D8.13 billion, with D1.57 billion spent on debt interest alone (excluding principal payments).

This resulted in a budget deficit of nearly D1.46 billion for the first quarter of 2025. While Keita described the deficit as manageable if future grants are received, he admitted that no budget support was expected in Quarter One. Notably, a delayed World Bank grant from 2024 is now being executed in 2025.

“The actual gross deficit (GMD 1.45 billion) is below our Quarter One projections (GMD 1.88 billion) by 23%,” Keita explained, adding that the situation is expected to normalise once budget support arrives.

However, Askanwi’s review of the 2025 Approved Budget reveals that the projected annual deficit was just D198 million—raising questions about the Finance Minister’s figures and the growing fiscal gap just three months into the year. The Finance Minister made his appearance on 16th June 2025.