Gambian lawyer criticises delay in local government report
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Kerr Fatou
Abdoulie Fatty, secretary general of the Gambia Bar Association, criticises the delay in publishing the report of the commission of inquiry into local government. He says the handling of the process harmed the right to a fair hearing, transparency and public confidence, according to Kerr Fatou.
Gambian lawyer Abdoulie Fatty, secretary general of the Gambia Bar Association, has criticised the delay in publishing the report of the Commission of Inquiry into Local Government, saying that the handling of the process harmed the right to a fair hearing, transparency and public confidence. He spoke on Kerr Fatou's Race to State House programme.
Abdoulie Fatty recalled that Gambia's 1997 Constitution allows the president to establish commissions or committees of inquiry and that the Commissions of Inquiry Act, adopted in 1903 during the colonial period, was amended about two years ago. He specified that these commissions are not courts, even though they have quasi-judicial powers, and that the inquiry into local government concerned, among other things, the conduct of local councils.
According to Mr Fatty, the hearings of the Commission of Inquiry into Local Government were public and broadcast live on television. He also recalled that once the report is submitted to the president, the people concerned must be informed of the findings relating to them and the basis for those findings, with the Constitution giving them three months to appeal to the Court of Appeal.
