Gambia-L:

The e-mail below came from a concerned Gambian. I have so many e-mails from
my sources but I can only send some because I am using a Cyber Cafe to send
these e-mails.


Ebrima Ceesay


>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: STOP TINKERING
>Date: Fri, 4
>
>Hi Ebrima,
>
>Please send this message as an addenum to the "stop tinkering with
>the economy " sent to the L. I think it is important. I beg your
>indulgence to remain annonymous for obvious reasons.
>-------------------------------------------------------
>Hi Ebrima,
>
>The government had a press release a couple of days ago to
>say that they received funds from the IMF to the value of $4.5million.
>What the release failed to say was that in return they have to
>implement some reforms to receive financial support from the IMF. If
>anyone is interested they can visit the IMF website and do
>a search on the Gambia. There they will find the letter of
>intent addressed to the managing director of the IMF and
>signed by the secretary of state for finance and the
>governor of the central bank. We can take it that this is an
>official government document. This is an era of
>transparency and accountability in the IMF and they are now
>required to make public their discussions with governments.
>
>Ebrima, the economic and financial situation in the country
>has deteriorated drastically. The government by its own
>admission say so in the letter of intent. Most of the
>performance benchmarks and quantitative criteria have not
>been met, particularly with regards to the government's
>surplus position and the deficit. The budgetary position
>was very weak. There was a serious shortfall in customs
>revenue due to  ..... you guess right - the stupid BIVAC
>preshipment inspection policy. Finally the government has
>admitted so on its own very document. Why BIVAC was
>introduced in the first place beats me. There is no
>economic rationale for its introduction. The preshipment
>inspection resulted in a shortfall in revenue from customs
>and sales tax and weakened the redistributive trade sector.
>in the fourth quarter of 1999 and the first quarter of
>2000. BIVAC was bound to fail and the authorities should
>have known that. I believe that there are some other
>ulterior motives by yaya and his government. In the fourth
>quarter of 1999 alone customs duties fell by 1.2 percent of
>GDP. Now consider for the whole year the disaster in
>revenue shortfall and its impact on the economy. These
>unprofessional people are experimenting with our economy.
>By its own admission the government agrees that BIVAC
>scheme was introduced without adequate preparation and
>administrative delays and high charges which adversely
>affected imports and re-exports the lifeline of the economy.See the
>IMF document for confirmation of this.
>
>Belatedly recognizing this poor policy decision to
>introduce BIVAC, guess what, they have revised their budget
>for 2000 and revised it downwards to reflect lower customs
>revenue and lower domestic sales tax. BIVAC has been a
>disaster and is destroying our fragile economy.
>
>G-Ler's do not despair, the good news is that as part of
>the IMF loan to the government, they have to take certain
>corrective measures otherwise the money will be frozen as
>it is given in installments. One such measure under the
>second annual arrangement under the poverty reduction and
>growth facility is ..... wait for it... ABOLISH PRESHIPMENT
>INSPECTION SCHEME EFFECTIVE JULY 2000.
>
>We are still waiting for pronouncement but this will happen
>sooner rather than later otherwise no more concessionary
>loans from our development partners. If they fail to do so,
>it will mean plunging the country into deeper economic and
>political chaos.

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