Zambian civil society has called for more transparency in loan arrangements between the government and donors.
The call came in response to finance and planning minister Ngandu Magandes recent announcement that donors had pledged about 510 million US dollar (godt 3 milliarder DKR) to the country, following a decision by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to restore Zambias Poverty Reduction Growth Facility (PRGF), reports IRIN.
The PRGF is the IMFs low-interest lending facility for low-income countries. The announcement by the IMF also brought the aid-dependent country a step closer to reaching the HIPC Completion Point by the end of this year.
– We need access to grants and not loans, said Jack Jones Zulu of the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR), who sat on the now disbanded eight-member team monitoring the disbursement of funds from the donor-supported Highly-Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative.
Zambia was suspended from IMF programmes after it overshot its 2003 budget by Kwacha 610 billion (about 130 million US dollar). Since then the IMF has closely monitored the countrys economic performance to ensure adherence to fiscal discipline measures agreed with the Fund.
The Zambian newspaper, The Daily Mail, reported that 320 million US dollar of the new loan, repayable over five years at 0,5 percent interest, would be allocated to Balance of Payment (BoP) support during 2004.
The paper reported that Magande, who was outlining the benefits of the PRGF, said “new programme aid inflows would resume, while the obvious benefit was that of qualification to the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) completion point”.
As a “least-developed” country, Zambia qualifies for the HIPC debt-reduction programme of the IMF and World Bank.
– We should not be celebrating the country reaching the completion point, rather we should be focused on the countrys future beyond the point: drawing up good social policy and increasing transparency on public spending,” Zulu commented.
Before its suspension in April, the HIPC Tracking and Monitoring Team, established by the ministry of finance in 2001, identified several alleged cases of abuse of funds involving top civil servants.
Kilde: FN-bureauet IRINnews
