30 Journalists Commence Training on Budget Reporting  

By Sheikh Manneh.

The Gambia Press Union in collaboration with International Republican Institute on Wednesday commenced a four days training on Budget and Public Finance Reporting for 30 journalists, at a local hotel in Kololi.

The training aims to equip journalists with requisite knowledge and skill to effectively report on budget and public finance, and to help the citizenry to know the government revenue and expenditures.

Sheriff Bojang, the president of the Gambia press union said “there is no better way to hold the authorities accountable than to monitor and scrutinize the way our monies are spend, the way they get our monies, and monies that comes in this country how and where it is spend.

“I think we have not been doing a good job to ourselves and our audience. We are the eyes and mouth of the people of our country; they depend on want we report and want we tell them on the budget.”

Mr. Bojang further added that the atmosphere is conducive enough and the field is wide open and it is up to journalists to be fair to Gambian people to scrutinize those who make decisions and to ask questions. And not to give up to buried stories from the beginning, until they are able to get answers.

Robina Namusisi, Country Director for International Republican Institute said “if the country was human being then budget would have been the blood to run in all parts of its body, without that blood flowing in the different parts of the body”. “That’s why it is important that budget flows in all parts of the country and its needs the media and civil society organization around it”, she added.

Momodou Gajaga, a reporter for QTV said he applied for the training to enhance his knowledge and on budget and public finance. He said if you talk about budget it affect everyone in the country.

Mr. Gajaga said budget present to the national assembly and to be scrutinize is basically the amount of money or expenditure that’s going to be use by the government for the next year on behalf of the people because of that importance, he applied to learn and to be able to report on budget and public finance effectively in the near future.

Louis S.A Alsana, freelance journalist said budget is something that she likes reporting on sine she joined the media four years ago. But she always step back because she didn’t understand the terms use but with the training she’s optimistic that she can report on budget and public finance.

Modou Jarju, a reporter of Forayaa News Paper said he is expecting to know a lot of terms when budget is present and how to report to better understanding of his reader.