The World Bank has approved a grant of US$ 3 million to support the Gambia's Capacity Building for Economic Management Project. According to a release from the bank, it's board of Executive Directors on Tuesday October 30 in Washington gave the approval of "an International Development Assistance (IDA) additional grant to support the Capacity Building for Economic Management of The Gambia, without an expansion and a scale-up of the original project activities."

This new grant is expected to establish the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) and to build local capacity in its usage. The release read: "The establishment of The Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) and the streamlining of customs procedures and upgrading of the Automated System Customs Data Administration (ASYCUDA) IT system are also among activities to be funded by the additional grant."

The project was initially approved by the IDA's Board of Executive Directors in July 2001 and was due to close on December 31, 2007, but as part of additional financing, the closing date has been extended to December 31, 2008.

"As of September 1, 2007, 94.4 percent of the credit has been disbursed," the bank said.

The World Bank Task Team Leader for the project, Hoon Sahib Soh quoted by the release said: "This additional grant would help finance costs associated with some of the original project activities which have experienced cost overruns.

It will allow the Government of The Gambia to complete ongoing initiatives, thereby contributing towards the achievement of the initial Project Development Objective (PDO) and the sustainability of the initiatives".

Hoon Sahib Soh emphasised that the "Expected out comes from these activities are improved public financial management, both for revenue and expenditures".