By RFIPosted on 12-28-2019Changed on 12-28-2019 at 1:09 p.m.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, President Félix Tshisekedi is eagerly awaited on the promulgation of the finance law for the 2020 financial year. The project, relating to $ 11 billion, has already been adopted and readjusted by the two chambers of Parliament. He is criticized by civil society. Congolese NGOs specializing in public finance published, on Friday in Kinshasa, their analysis which accuses this budget of lack of credibility and consistency.

Civil society notes that the operating budget of institutions and ministerial offices alone has increased by 59%. It weighs some $ 613 million. Florimond Muteba, president of the Public Expenditure Observatory (ODEP), judges some of these expenses obscure:

“ In this lifestyle of the state, you also have obscure expenses. Research costs, special intervention funds ... We added up. That makes almost 88 billion Congolese francs which are distributed in these obscure costs but which could have been given to Education and Health. The President speaks of "health for all". However, the health budget has decreased from 10% in 2019 to 5% in 2020. ”

For NGOs, this budget devotes too little to investment, particularly in the agricultural sector and in energy.

In early December, the IMF called the budget “ unrealistic ”. The state, which intends to increase the tax burden up to 13%, can only mobilize $ 7.5 billion.

To make up for the budget deficit of 3.5 billion, the State will therefore have to go into debt or use the printing press. Abraham Djamba, director of Reged, a network of NGOs specializing in public finance, says he is worried: " But if this deficit is only used for consumption, there is a risk of having perverse effects on the Congolese economy. "

The project is supposed to be promulgated before the New Year by the president, but the forces ask him to return the text, at second reading, to give it credibility.

    On the same subject

    DRC: mixed reactions to Félix Tshisekedi's speech to the nation

    DRC: highlights of Tshisekedi's first state of the nation address

    DRC: Denise Nyakeru Tshisekedi's commitment against sexual violence

    DRC: President Tshisekedi meets Zongo flood victims

    comments