Use oil revenue for the people, IMF urges government

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said the Republic of Congo (ROC) government should spend more of its budget on reducing poverty, paying salaries and pensions as well as student scholarships, given its increased oil earnings. "Our strong recommendation to the Congolese authorities is to develop a workable timetable for paying all arrears [the government owes its citizens]," Dan Ghura, the assistant head of the African Division of the IMF, told a news conference on Friday in the ROC capital, Brazzaville. He held the news conference at the end of the first review mission of a three-year economic and financial programme that the IMF Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility had approved in December 2004. In 2004, Ghura said, the government only paid one-month salary arrears. It owes its workers 23 months of salary arrears, according to the largest trade union in the country, the Confederation syndicale congolaise. The salaries the government owes from 1995 to 2004 are estimated at 187.6 billion francs CFA (US $361 million). The government earned a surplus from its 2004 petroleum sales of 136.3 billion francs ($262 million). The government said it used its surplus oil revenue to pay its debts to international creditors. In its 2005 budget, it allocated 3.7 percent for poverty reduction. The country produces 250,000 barrels of oil a day, and the government would likely have a revenue surplus again in 2005 from oil sales. In its 2005 budget, the government estimated that a barrel of oil would sell for $31.1 dollars whereas the actual 2005 international market price is between $45 and $50.