GM Strengthening Public Accounts & Public Enterprise Committee The development objective of this grant is to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Public Accounts and Enterprises C  ommittees and the Finance Committee of the National Assembly of The Gambia. # This will be achieved through three key sub-objectives as follows:# i.#Provide the Secretariat staff of the Public Accounts and Public Enterprises Committees and the Finance Committee of the National Assembly with academic and continuous professional training to enhance its support to the members of the Committees;# ii.#Provide specialized training and human resource capacity strengthening programs to members of the Committee; and# iii.#Develop sustainable mechanism for publicizing and disseminating the review findings of the Committees and making them publicly accessible on the National Assembly website.# One of the primary goals of effective public financial management is to ensure that public funds are spent to achieve public policy objectives as set by the elected representatives and that the executive is held accountable for any deviations.  In The Gambia, several measures have been taken in recent years to strengthen good practices in public financial management through appropriate legislation. The PFM legal and regulatory framework has been strengthened by the enactmentof the Government Budget Management and Accountably Act (GBMAA) of 2004 along with the revision of the Financial Instruction (FIs) issued in 2004. In addition,Government accounting systems have been computerized through the implementationof IFMIS in all 28 MDAs. Gambia Public Procurement Act 2001 was adopted, followed by the establishment of the Gambia Public Procurement Authority (GPAA) to oversee the implementation of the procurement law. # Despite progress made in addressing the broad PFM issues, some challenges remain in areas such as such as the lack of adequate technical and operational capacity of the legislative oversight body â€“ the Public Accounts and Public EnterpriseCommittee of the National Assembly to review and systematically follow up on the implementation of the audit recommendations as pertaining to the executive agencies of the government, including public enterprises. # Recent trends and continuing Bank-GoTG dialogue have shown that in order to rise to the emerging challenges in public oversight and accountability, priority should be given to the development of human resource and capacity of National Assembly members performing the oversight role as well as the Secretariat staff of the oversight committee. Training and capacity building and establishment of permanent operational structures and facilities are required, especially when new members come on board and need to understand the critical role of legislative oversight.  Equally important is the continuous attempt to encourage public participation in governance and accountability.# Towards this goal of ensuring that the National Assembly Committee carry out its mandated function, the Government of Gambia, requests financial and technical support under the IDF grant. The activities to be funded are primarily aligned with the IDF and the Bankâ€™s engagement priorities of strengthening the National Assembly oversight capacity as relating to the public accounts and public enterprises, and these are also integral to assuring a more effective public expenditure m anagement and financial accountability practice in The Gambia.