Editorial: RIP Gambia Public Transport Corporation

Monday, 26 November 2012 22:09

(JollofNews) – The Gambia Public Transport Corporation (GPTC) is no more.  Scrapped by parliament, which established this once most enviable entity in the Gambia, the death of the GPTC is a strong indication of how bad attitude, abuse of authority, and destruction of public assets by government, which ironically should safe guard it, can be detrimental to the common good.

For many years GPTC transports, which provided efficient communications between rural and urban Gambia and carried many students to schools cheaply, was subjected to misuse by the ruling party of the then PPP and worst the APRC of the first and second republics respectively.

Instead of providing services to the people, the buses were hijacked by party bigwigs apparently with the consent of their leaders to ferry supporters to political meetings and campaigns for free.
GPTC buses were once most enviable entity in the Gambia
In the process the corporation missed out on money and could not carry out much needed repairs not to talk about expanding their operations.

But where the abuse was discreet and at some extent minimal in PPP era, it was outrageously rampant in the APRC era.

In fact, instead of correcting the errors of the PPP in its management of the body, the APRC completed the annihilation of the fleet of vehicles.

As we mourn the death of this once enviable entity, we call on the government to as a matter of urgency provide a reliable public transport system for the country. Such a project cannot be delayed since it is government itself which is to blame for the negligence and abuse that killed the GPTC.

Finally, and perhaps more importantly, we call on government to fulfil its promise to pay all dues to the GPTC staff, some of whom have suffered from both lack of work and pay.

As for the GPTC and its founders, we say RIP bravo. You have left your mark.