DRC: Central Bank administrators replaced to meet IMF requirements
The provincial branch of the Congolese Central Bank in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
(Illustrative image) Denise Maheho / RFI
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
For almost two years, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have been negotiating for the signing of a financing program.
One of the very first conditions imposed was the compliance of the board of directors of the Central Bank with the law adopted in 2018. These new directors were appointed last week, but three of them were still asking. problem.
They would resign, it was assured, Tuesday evening July 13, on both sides.
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The board of directors of the International Monetary Fund will be doing well this week. The suspense will have lasted until the end. But the IMF has asked the Democratic Republic of Congo to bring the board of directors of the Congolese Central Bank into compliance. This
is one of the conditions for obtaining this financing program
for which a preliminary agreement was signed last May.
Two of the appointed directors belonged to the president's office, the third had interests in a local commercial bank. Before taking the decision to replace them, President Tshisekedi had requested the advisory opinion of the Council of State and the Constitutional Court to understand who could be appointed to this post. In article 52 of the 2018 law, it is clearly specified that members of the president's offices are excluded.
But there are many other constraints, you can neither be employed by a public company, nor even be an employee of a commercial or financial company.
However, the administrators of the BCC are not paid, but receive an attendance allowance.
"
The constraints are such that it is necessary to find retirees or the unemployed, even a university professor could not sit
", one explains on the side of the presidency.
$ 1.5 billion at stake
To fulfill the ultimate IMF condition, the decision was taken to replace the administrators whose cases of incompatibility are evident.
But already, at the highest summit of the State, we are thinking of reforming this law to alleviate the type of incompatibility without calling into question the independence of the administrators.
In any case, these resignations should allow the holding of the meeting of the IMF's board of directors on Thursday, July 15.
As a reminder, compliance with this program could pave the way for the disbursement of a billion and a half dollars over three years, but also to other funding from foreign donors.
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