Bangui gets €1 million from France to pay salaries

The French government has granted the Central African Republic €1 million (US $1.16 million) to help it pay its civil servants' salaries and to stabilise its public finances, French Ambassador Jean-Pierre Destouesse has announced. "It is because there is an emergency and there are real difficulties [in the CAR] that the French government granted this budgetary aid," Destouesse said in an interview with the state-owned Radio Centrafrique on Tuesday following a meeting with President Francois Bozize in the capital, Bangui. Since Bozize took power from President Ange-Felix Patasse in a coup on 15 March, the transitional government had paid civil servants’ salaries monthly until August. However, the government did not pay September salaries due to a sharp decrease in revenue generated by customs, imports and exports. The decrease was attributed to heavy rains that led to the damage of major transport routes. Destouesse said that in addition to the latest grant, France and the EC were considering how best to help stabilise the country's financial services, undermined by years of corruption and mismanagement. He said France would send customs, tax and budget experts to the Ministry of Finance to assist Minister Daniel Boyssembe. The grant was the second, in less than a month, bringing to more than US $11 million the total aid France has given its former colony. France had earlier granted $660,000 to Bangui University, $3.8 million for water drainage and road repair projects and $5.46 million for the revival of the country's river transportation. At the same time, Destouesse criticised former rebels loyal to Bozize, who he said continued to create insecurity in the country. He said the former rebels' attitude was tarnishing the image of the transitional government. About 100 former rebels demonstrated on Saturday in northern Bangui, demanding their integration into the army.