Agreement with World Bank over oil revenues

Chad and the World Bank have reached a new agreement about how the country will use its oil revenues, ending a six-month row that jeopardised a ground-breaking scheme that aimed to set aside petrodollars for the poor. Under the agreement, Chad said it would devote 70 percent of its budget to poverty reduction programs in the areas of health, education, agriculture, infrastructure, environment, rural development, de-mining and good governance. Chad has also committed to work out a new poverty-reduction strategy, which would be written into law, and to create a stabilisation fund for future generations. “We now have a good foundation for the work ahead. This is a huge step forward,” said World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz. “The Chadian authorities have committed to ensuring that all oil revenues, not just the royalties, are spent on health and education and other basic needs of the poor.” The World Bank suspended loans to the country in January after N’djamena scrapped a scheme whereby a chunk of petrodollars was to be set aside for future generations. The 1999 agreement aimed to ensure that the country bucked the trend of Africa’s other oil producers where petrodollars have enriched a few while the masses languish in poverty. Some human rights and civil society groups declared the day the oil valves officially opened “a national day of mourning" and warned that mass corruption would follow. The World Bank said Chad would aim to enhance transparency and accountability through a new pledge of support for the role of the College of Control and Surveillance of Petroleum Revenues - Chad’s independent oil revenue oversight authority. It will be strengthened to ensure it has the resources to more effectively perform its duties. The $3.7-billion oil development project is being run by an Exxon-Mobil consortium. The pipeline, inaugurated in 2003, runs through savannah and jungle from the Doba oilfields in southern Chad, across Cameroon to a mooring buoy in the Atlantic ocean. The new agreement also provides for the continued allocation of five percent of oil revenue for projects on behalf of the people in the Doba region itself. mn/cs