By Hassoum Ceesay.

Out for the first time in eight years, the recently released parliamentary finance committee's report on official corruption in The Gambia has so shocked the people that President Yahya Jammeh has had to act.

The report, based on the auditor general's statement of accounts, has been at the centre of parliamentary debate for the past three months. It reveals a web of corruption in the entire government machinery - from municipal councils to even the country's embassies abroad.

The situation is so bad that both government and opposition MPs have been disgusted at the enormity of graft revealed by the report. Among the revelations is a case in which senior officials at the Kanifing Municipal Council claimed to have bought pencils for schools in the area at US$6 each.

The report also tells of how visa and passport fees amounting to thousands of dollars went missing in some of the country's embassies abroad, while money meant to pay the salaries of diplomats was diverted by some senior government officials. One diplomat at the country's permanent UN mission in New York sold the furniture in his official residence after he was recalled home.

The report says millions of dalasis (the local currency) have been lost in ticket rackets, inflated contracts and ghost workers.

President Jammeh was stunned by the revelations and immediately fired his ambassadors in Paris and Brussels, two of the embassies implicated in the report.

In early December, the president called an extraordinary congress of his ruling APRC party to discuss the mountain of allegations made by the report. At the end of the congress, Jammeh promised to pour fire and brimstone on corrupt officials irrespective of their party loyalty. "Whether they are party supporters who are green (the ruling party's official colour), whether they lie in green beds or drive green cars, we will make them face the music," he vowed. As New African went to press, a commission of inquiry to probe the report's findings was about to be set up.

For once, Jammeh has received broad support from all sides of the political spectrum. The opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) has called for "prompt prosecution" of the corrupt officials, while the leader of the National Reconciliation Party, Hamat Bah, has described the allegations as "disheartening". Majority leader Tamsir Jallow simply calls it: "sabotage". The president, however, has a difficult time ahead in his anti-corruption war, which was the centre-piece of his campaign slogans in 1994 when he seized power in a coup, promising probity and accountability.

Meanwhile, MPs have petitioned the president asking for substantial car and housing allowances. They say they are tired of hiring taxis to attend parliamentary sessions, and have threatened to "revolt" if their demand is rejected.

Just over two years ago, the MPs received substantial salary hikes, from 3,000 dalasis to 7,000 dalasis, plus sitting allowances and car loans. In the meantime, civil servants have for years been crying in vain for a pay rise. The MPs' new demand for more money has, thus, enraged ordinary Gambians who think the lawmakers are being greedy.

Now, Jammeh has his work cut: local government elections are due this year and presidential elections next year. Does he please voters who are angry over the MPs' new demand for more money? Or does he please the MPs threatening to revolt?