{"id":547,"date":"2026-09-30T13:43:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T13:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/startersites.io\/blocksy\/daily-news\/?p=547"},"modified":"2026-11-02T21:35:36","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T21:35:36","slug":"udp-youth-president-points-finger-at-corruption-for-nawecs-struggles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/issuesthatmattermedia.org\/ro\/udp-youth-president-points-finger-at-corruption-for-nawecs-struggles\/","title":{"rendered":"UDP Youth president points finger at corruption for NAWEC’S Struggles"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Ousman A. Marong<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Youth President of the United Democratic Party (UDP), Hagi Sawaneh, has pointed fingers at corruption, conflicts of interest, and a lack of political will as the key reasons behind the National Water and Electricity Company\u2019s (NAWEC) ongoing struggles to provide reliable services to the people of The Gambia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a recent interview, Sawaneh emphasized that NAWEC’s issues aren’t due to a shortage of resources or technical know-how, but rather a result of intentional sabotage by those who benefit from the current situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCorruption, conflicts of interest, and a lack of political will are the primary reasons why NAWEC isn\u2019t performing as it should,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The youth leader went on to allege that some high-ranking officials from the ruling National People\u2019s Party (NPP) are directly profiting from NAWEC\u2019s reliance on costly fossil fuels for power generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He claimed that certain influential NPP members have companies registered under their names that are awarded contracts to supply heavy fuel oil to the utility company, raking in millions of dalasis from public funds.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Image<\/div><\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s through the fossil fuel contracts that many of these NPP big shots are making their fortunes. Some of them have their own companies supplying NAWEC with heavy fuel,\u201d Sawaneh alleged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He believes this arrangement is politically driven and maintained through a system of patronage. He described it as a quid pro quo scenario where businesspeople finance political campaigns in return for lucrative government contracts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s simple: you support my campaign financially, and I\u2019ll ensure you get a contract. This conflict of interest is rooted in a lack of political will,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sawaneh argued that as long as top officials continue to profit from fuel supply contracts, there will be no genuine effort to shift The Gambia towards more affordable and sustainable energy sources like solar power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For years now, NAWEC has been grappling with inconsistent electricity supply, regular blackouts, and soaring operational costs, which has understandably led to public frustration. Even with repeated promises from the government for reform and significant investments in the energy sector, consumers are still voicing their dissatisfaction with the poor service they receive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The youth president of the UDP has urged the government to promote transparency in NAWEC\u2019s procurement processes and to make public the list of companies that supply fuel to the organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time of publishing, attempts to get a response from NAWEC and the NPP were unsuccessful.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Ousman A. Marong The National Youth President of the United Democratic Party (UDP), Hagi Sawaneh, has pointed fingers at corruption, conflicts of interest, and a lack of political will as the key reasons behind the National Water and Electricity Company\u2019s (NAWEC) ongoing struggles to provide reliable services to the people of The Gambia. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-breaking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/issuesthatmattermedia.org\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/issuesthatmattermedia.org\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/issuesthatmattermedia.org\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/issuesthatmattermedia.org\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/issuesthatmattermedia.org\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/issuesthatmattermedia.org\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":997,"href":"https:\/\/issuesthatmattermedia.org\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions\/997"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/issuesthatmattermedia.org\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/issuesthatmattermedia.org\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/issuesthatmattermedia.org\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/issuesthatmattermedia.org\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}