Government changes rice distribution system after attacks on trucks

President Lansana Conte has suspended more than 100 elected officials in the capital Conakry after accusing them of stealing subsidised rice which was meant to be sold cheaply though local government offices to the city's poor. The move followed a spate of attacks on trucks carrying rice by gangs of angry youths. Conte said on Tuesday that the government had reached an agreement with private traders to sell the rice at a controlled price of 40,000 francs (US$14) per 50 kg bag instead. A bag of rice currently sells on the free market for $20 - more than many Guineans earn in a month. The about-turn in government policy followed several incidents last week in which trucks carrying sacks of rice into Conakry's Madina market area were attacked and emptied by youths protesting at a rapid rise in food prices. Eyewitnesses told IRIN that in one incident armed security men fired in the air to try unsuccessfully to scare off the looters. On another occasion, they said, a group of policemen were forced to flee as desperate youths threatened to attack them if they tried to prevent rice being taken from a lorry. Rice is the staple food of Guinea and the West African country once exported large quantities, but today its eight million people - especially the two million inhabitants of Conakry - are heavily dependent on imports. And with the Guinean franc depreciating rapidly, the price of rice in local currency terms has been climbing rapidly. Conte told a meeting of the five mayors and 98 elected district representatives of the capital on Tuesday that he was suspending all of them in view of their miserable performance in distributing the subsidised rice since the government launched the initiative with the help of Japanese aid in February. The president announced then that 20,000 tonnes would be released to the population of Conakry from special depots at 26,500 francs (then worth $12) per bag under the watchful eye of local government officials and policemen. But on Tuesday, Conte told those entrusted with overseeing this distribution network that he was scrapping it because it had become mired in corruption, with officials stealing rice and selling on the open market it at higher prices. "You have just heard that two district chiefs have been put in prison. Once we have checked how you have been behaving we will probably find that all district chiefs should be in prison," the president said, according to a transcript of his speech published by the internet-based independent news service Guinneenews (www.boubah.com). "You, the mayors and district chiefs of Conakry are all suspended from your responsibilities....with effect from today," he added. One opposition leader told IRIN privately that Conte, who has ruled Guinea with an iron hand for 20 years, was simply making the local officials into scapegoats for the much bigger problem of rampant corruption at the top levels of government. Others have blamed the rising price of Guinea's basic foodstuff on a chronic shortage of foreign exchange caused by the country's steady economic decline, falling returns from exports and the unwillingness of western donors to give money to the government. A joint mission to Guinea by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in May issued a report which said the central bank had completely run out of foreign exchange by the end of last year. It also expressed alarm at a rapidly rising budget deficit. The report, which was published in full last week by the independent newspaper Le Lynx, said inflation rose to 13 percent in 2003 and was likely to reach 27 percent this year unless corrective measures were taken. "Without credible reforms, the current situation will worsen," it predicted. There is now a 40 percent gap between the official and black market rates of exchange and virtually no hard currency is available to the private sector through official sources. Fatoumata Drame, the president of the Association of Foreign Exchange Dealers, complained in a recent letter to the governor of the central bank that Guinea's commercial banks were now so desperate they had begun telephoning her members to see whether they could sell them foreign currency. "If you ask a bank for US$500 today, you won't get it," she said. Meanwhile, the price of the country's staple food has climbed beyond the reach of many people. "Here is Guinea, we eat rice. But rice is now the most difficult thing to find at a reasonable price," one trader said. One disconted resident of the capital told IRIN, that the latest intiative by Conte to bring down food prices did not go far enough. "This does not solve the problem. How can we buy a bag of rice at this price with our meagre salary," he said.