U.S. Embassy Banjul Political Economic Section FY 2017 Fiscal | DOSBJL PE 18 GR 001

Opportunity Information: Apply for DOSBJL PE 18 GR 001

The U.S. Embassy in Banjul, through the U.S. Department of State, announced a grant competition to fund a program in The Gambia focused on strengthening budget transparency, improving public financial management practices, and making natural resource governance more open. The opportunity (Funding Opportunity Number DOSBJL PE 18 GR 001) is structured as a grant and falls under a natural resources-related funding category (CFDA 19.322). The eligible applicants listed for this competition are private institutions of higher education. The posting indicates an award ceiling of $550,000, with the opportunity originally closing on August 5, 2018, and a creation date of July 17, 2018. The overall idea is to support both government institutions and civil society efforts so that public finances and resource-related decisions can be scrutinized more easily by citizens, oversight bodies, and other stakeholders.

The program is organized around four main objectives, and progress across each objective area is treated as the marker of success. The grant can include an initial, relatively short pre-program phase dedicated to research and gathering information, which would typically help confirm baseline conditions, map key stakeholders, identify existing laws and processes, and clarify where the biggest transparency gaps exist. From there, the project is meant to combine practical capacity-building (such as training and technical assistance) with concrete improvements in how information is produced, organized, and released to the public.

The first objective is to improve the completeness of government budget documents. This part emphasizes training Gambian government officials so that budgets contain detailed, structured information rather than broad totals. Specifically, budgets are expected to show expenditures broken down by ministry and revenues broken down by source and type, and they should not omit special accounts or funds that can otherwise sit outside the main budget framework. The budget should also capture significant resources that may not be traditional cash expenditures, including foreign assistance, and it should provide clearer visibility into state-owned enterprises by detailing government allocations to them as well as what those enterprises earn. In practical terms, this objective is about ensuring the budget tells a full story of government finances, including flows that are often fragmented across institutions or reporting systems.

The second objective is to make budget information publicly available in a usable way. Under this goal, the program would work with government officials to ensure that core budget documents are accessible to the public, including the executive budget proposal, the enacted budget, and full end-of-year reports. It also calls for the publication of complete information on public debt obligations, which is often essential for understanding fiscal risk and long-term sustainability. The opportunity expresses a preference for public access through online publication, but it also allows for hard-copy access through government offices or libraries, recognizing that internet access and digital infrastructure may vary. The thrust of this objective is not only producing documents, but also ensuring they can actually be found and used by citizens, journalists, watchdog groups, researchers, and legislators.

The third objective focuses on audits and oversight. The program would work with The Gambia's supreme audit institution to support the publication of audit reports within a reasonable period of time. Timely audits are a key accountability tool because they help identify mismanagement, weaknesses in controls, and irregularities while corrective actions are still feasible. This objective points to the importance of both the production of audit findings and the public release of those findings, since transparency is limited if audits remain internal or are released too late to matter.

The fourth objective addresses transparency in natural resource extraction. Under this component, the program would work with Gambian government officials to clarify, through law or regulation, the procedures and criteria used to award natural resource extraction contracts and licenses. In addition to establishing clearer rules, the project aims to make information about awards publicly available. This objective is intended to reduce the risk of opaque decision-making and strengthen public confidence by making it easier to understand who receives extraction rights, under what terms, and through what process. It also aligns natural resource governance with broader transparency norms that help deter corruption and improve the management of public assets.

Expected results (measures and deliverables at project completion) would logically track the four objectives and translate them into observable outputs and changes in practice. On complete budgets, the project should result in improved budget documentation that consistently includes ministry-level expenditure detail, revenue breakdowns by source and type, full inclusion of special accounts or funds, and explicit accounting for significant cash and non-cash resources such as foreign aid. It should also produce clearer, more consistent reporting on financial relationships with state-owned enterprises, including allocations and earnings, making those entities less of a blind spot in fiscal reporting. A measurable result here could be the adoption of standardized templates or guidance that officials use to compile budgets, along with evidence that the next budget cycle reflects these improvements.

On public budgets, a clear outcome would be routine public access to the executive budget proposal, enacted budget, and end-of-year reports in full, along with published data on debt obligations. The tangible deliverables could include a functioning online portal or web page where these documents are posted, or an established distribution and archiving system through government offices and libraries, supported by written procedures that define what must be published and when. Measurement would focus on whether the documents are actually available to the public, whether they are complete (not partial summaries), and whether publication is timely and consistent across reporting periods.

On audits, the expected result would be a strengthened process for producing and releasing audit reports, culminating in audit reports being published within a defined, reasonable timeframe. Deliverables might include improved internal workflows, training materials, publication schedules, or agreed protocols between the audit institution and relevant government bodies. Measurable indicators could include the number of audit reports published, average time between audit completion and publication, and evidence that the public can access these reports without special permission.

On natural resource extraction, completion would ideally produce clearer legal or regulatory language describing the criteria and procedures for awarding contracts and licenses, paired with a public-facing mechanism that discloses awards. Deliverables might include drafted or finalized regulatory text, public notices, or an online and/or physical registry of extraction awards. Measurement could include whether the procedures are formally adopted or operationalized, whether award information is consistently disclosed, and whether the disclosure includes meaningful details (such as the identity of awardees and the nature of the license or contract).

Taken together, the project is designed to leave behind stronger public financial management practices, more accessible fiscal information for public oversight, improved audit transparency, and clearer, more open governance of natural resource extraction. The long-term value is that citizens and institutions would have better tools to track how public money is planned, spent, and audited, and how natural resource rights are allocated, which can support accountability and trust in public institutions.

• The U.S. Mission to Gambia in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "U.S. Embassy Banjul Political Economic Section FY 2017 Fiscal" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 19.322.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2018-07-17.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2018-08-05. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $550,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: Private institutions of higher education.

Apply for DOSBJL PE 18 GR 001

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: