The Central Bank of Congo has
published on its website (www.bcc.cd) the figures related to the country Public Finances.
The first observation is that no currency is mentioned! Therefore we are
assuming they are talking about millions of Congolese francs.
At first glance, the result looks
'fantastic' with the State generating a surplus of CDF 164m (approximately USD
180k). This is good news for a country known for poor public finance
management. However, we need to look at the figures closer to have a better
appreciation of what happened in 2013.
On the revenues sides the
government has only managed to reach 55% of its budget. This is a poor
performance. The question is whether the budgeting exercise was poorly done
(which I suspect) or the government did not managed to collect as much as they
anticipated which I doubt as the data (Central Bank -to be discussed soon) show
a significant increase in the national output.
The direct consequence is that
the government expenditures were 48% below budget. You can ask me:" where
is the problem as they have managed to maintain a surplus?"
The problem is that the
government only paid 11% of what it was supposed to pay to State local
suppliers!!! This has terrible repercussions on these companies that have provided
a service to the State without being paid. The consequence for some of them was
to lay-off employees and close doors...
As a result, the 'prudent' fiscal
approach of the government has had negative consequences on local SME
activities.
The question we can ask ourselves
is whether or not the government would have achieved such good performance in
term of inflation and forex stability if they had made all those payments...
