Saturday, November 15, 2008

IMF criticises Dakar for its "slow pay" history on infrastructure work

Previous posts have highlighted the Dakar central govern-ment's "slow pay" history on the Touba infrastructure projects. In the euphemistic terminology of the IMF, a statement following last September's report indicates it is aware of the problem:

"The mission evaluated the serious budgetary slippages that were uncovered in early August 2008. They comprise a large stock of unpaid bills to the private sector within the normal budgetary framework that have accumulated over the last few years, as well as past extrabudgetary spending, which, taken together, were inconsistent with the availability of financing and Senegal's macroeconomic circumstances. While a full assessment of the stock of unpaid bills is ongoing, their extent and lack of consis-tency with the budgetary framework warrant strong actions."

More recent posts here note that President Wade's visit to Touba this week was accompanied by some major payment installments on the Chinese infrastructure work there. One wonders however what result will come of the IMF's "full assessment" of the unpaid bills.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

There seems to be something of a budgeting fervor going on in Dakar since the IMF critique. Belt tightening is certain in order.