While opposition members accuse the Malian government of misusing public money, international donors have blocked billions of aid money as part of sanctions over alleged bribery and bad governance practices. Citizens fear those measures — triggered by the purchase of a presidential aircraft and different public expenditures without a public procurement process — precede tougher times.
According to opposition leader Soumaila Cisse, daily life is more and more difficult for Malian citizens because of insecurity, unemployment and corruption.
“Our country is being embedded in deep economic and security crisis, especially linked to bad governance and a total lack of political dialogue,” Cisse told AFKInsider.
Since President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was elected in September 2013, Malians have suffered from the consequences of the government’s irrational decisions, according to the Cisse.
“Up to this day, our country doesn’t have a scheme of economic recovery and peace settlement. The country is facing many difficult issues, including the catastrophic management of public finances with expenditures out of budget,” she added.
According to parliament member Mody N’Diaye, because of the alleged bad governance, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and European Union decided sanctions against the Malian government, blocking more than 70 billion of CFA currency (145 million USD).
“It is due to generalized corruption and the total opacity surrounding the public procurement process of some transactions done by the government,” N’Diaye told AFKInsider.
Last week, the Malian minister of economy, Filly Sissoko, visited Washington to present the measures the Malian government would like to adopt to reinsure the IMF. According to Bakary Traore who teaches economics at university in the Malian capital Bamako, the IMF commitment is important as it guarantees borrowing money from both IMF and other donors.
According to Traore, the IMF looks after the public expenditures of the countries that require its support. When the public expenditures are not included in the state budget, the IMF may block the withdrawals of money by the government.
Dubious Transactions
This has been the case of the extra-budget expenditures that have been denounced by the Malian opposition last week. Parliament member Mamadou Gassama denounced the purchase of an aircraft by the Malian president, as the parliament hasn’t been associated to the purchase process.
“While the former presidential aircraft is in perfect status, they decided to spoil money, buying a new one. This is a violation of the law, as they took the money from the public treasury without the parliament’s authorization,” Gassama told AFKInsider.
The purchase of the aircraft is also described as a dubious transaction, as the president and his Prime Minister communicated contradictory prices for the plane. According to the government, authorities borrowed $40 million from a local bank to buy the aircraft. However, leaked information revealed that they withdrew $28 million from the public treasury.
Other transactions made by the government include the purchase of weapons and ammunition, according to the opposition. But Soumeylou Maiga, former minister of defense, said those transactions being sensitive issues haven’t been done on the basis of a public procurement, which could be a kind of advertisement.
The IMF — which queried those transactions — hasn’t been convinced by the Malian minister of economy, without convincing her country’s partners. Meanwhile, they agreed to implement corrective measures, including the audit of the ‘dubious transactions’ by national audit services.
The Malian government commits to abide by the orders of the IMF before September 2014, which is the scheduled date of the next mission of the monetary institution in Mali. Until that day, the Malian public expenditures will suffer a severe lack of money and daily life may be tougher for citizens, as predicted by opposition members.
Security and education collapse
Talking to parliament members last week, the Prime minister said his government has a good relationship with the IMF, as the minister of economy was negotiating how to overcome the problems in Washington. He also denied his alleged responsibility in recent escalation of violence in the war-torn northern part of the country.
The Malian armed forces lost some of their strategic positions in the north after a visit of the Prime minister in Kidal, the rebels’ headquarter. This city being a part of Mali, the government said any official figure must visit it, but the opposition leaders argue that the Prime minister must resign because of this incident.
Authorities are also criticized for their responsibility in corruption in the country’s educational system, especially recent leaks of national examinations’ topics. Citizens join blaming the government, as a teachers’ union queried the high school Baccalaureate examination to be canceled because of irregularities.
Though people now think a government shift would be a loss of time, the debate of the parliament on the motion of censure required by the opposition leaders has been largely commented on social media. Corruption and bad governance practices raise concerns from citizens who were divided about the opposition query for the government to resign.