Donor Partners Face Dilemma As DR Congo Heads For Meltdown
DR Congo is heading towards an economic meltdown that requires the countrys fragile government and its inter-national donor partners to take urgent measures to avoid a prolonged crisis.
According to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) memo, reckless economic management before last months presidential election could “durably jeopardize” (bringe i vedvarende fare) stability in the vast central African country.
International partners have spent more than 500 million US dollar (henved 3 milliarder DKR) to support DR Congos elections, seen as Africas most important since South Africas 1994 polls. The UN has spent more than 1 billion dollar a year to maintain its huge peacekeeping mission.
But western governments and non-governmental organizations say western institutions have not exercised enough oversight over their lending programs or applied enough pressure to ensure mining contracts were signed in a transparent manner.
A World Bank investigation is under way into alleged mismanagement in Bank-assisted Congolese government agencies responsible for handling hundreds of millions of dollars of reconstruction funds.
Last week, Paul Wolfowitz, World Bank President, met top European and UN diplomats to discuss measures aimed at supporting DR Congos new democracy. Xavier Maret, IMFs Congo representative, said that there would be a top level inter-national meeting early next year to discuss financial commitments from donors.
In the meantime, DR Congo would be looking for budgetary assistance to implement a new IMF-backed program that could lead to a reduction of DR Congos 10 billion dollar in external debt.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
