Chadian President Idriss Deby has given his final approval to a new law on oil revenues despite the suspension of World Bank loans worth 124 million US dollar, BBC Online reports Thursday.
The law reduces the proportion of the profits from a pipeline earmarked to be spent on fighting long-term poverty. The World Bank agreed to finance 4 per cent of the 4 billion US dollar (24,8 milliarder DKR) project on condition these profits went towards development.
Mr Deby has denounced last weeks move by the bank as foreign pressure and an attack on Chads sovereignty. He says his government needs some of the oil money now to finance improvements in health and education.
The Bank had lent Chad more than 39 million dollar for the Chad-Cameroon pipeline on condition that non-government groups checked its use of oil revenues. The private sector arm of the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation, lent another 100 million dollar and mobilised a further 300 million for the 1.000 km pipeline.
Bank president Paul Wolfowitz has accused Chads government of acting “unilaterally” after the law which Mr Deby approved was passed by parliament two weeks ago.
But the government has accused the institution of acting like a coloniser and of using the poor Central African countrys people as guinea pigs to test different types of management, BBC adds.
