DRC: prior to negotiations, the IMF requests a realistic 2021 budget

Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi during a visit to Uganda, November 9, 2019. Sumy Sadurni / AFP

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3 min

The Congolese authorities remain optimistic about the signing of a support program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

This week, the IMF completed its review of a program signed between November and May, which was supposed to make it possible to carry out a diagnosis of governance in Congo but also to put the country back on the rails of sound financial management.

Finally, the balance sheet remains mixed and the fund therefore sets a certain number of prerequisites.

Prerequisites which may seem simple on paper, but which could prove difficult to implement.

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With our correspondent in Kinshasa,

Before even accepting the opening of negotiations, the IMF demands a realistic 2021 budget.

Which was not the case last year.

11 billion dollars, a historically high budget which predicted that the DRC's revenues would double without real reform, is the scenario to be avoided.

The problem is that today, the state uses almost 100% of its revenue on consumer spending.

The wage bill has exploded and represents, by itself, more than 70%, because of the measure of free primary education.

Politically impossible to reverse this emblematic measure of President Tshisekedi and the State still has to support tens of thousands of teachers in the 2021 budget.

As for a possible reshuffle of the government and the presidency, both bloated, discussions are constantly pushed back by the two partners in power.

Mining contracts

By allying with former President Joseph Kabila, Felix Tshisekedi has promised not to delve into the past.

However, the IMF advocates more transparency, especially in the mining sector, with, among other things, the publication of contracts that had hitherto remained opaque.

The IMF, which has so far been opposed to an inadmissibility, requests

the publication of two mining contracts signed under Felix Tshisekedi, those concerning Sokimo and Miba.

But both have raised many questions from civil society, which suspects embezzlement.

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