Comrades:

Please read the following excerpts from Reuter:



                                   IMF Scolds Gambia, Orders It to Repay $10m 


WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The International Monetary Fund on Monday reprimanded Gambia for failing to stick to conditions of a loan pact and ordered the West African nation to pay back $10 million plus interest in assistance this year.

President Yahya Jammeh last month announced his country had found oil, saying he wanted to rid the country of corruption so the new oil wealth would not be diverted from the government's coffers.

Gambia, with an annual per capita income of $340, is one of the world's poorest countries. A former British colony, the country occupies just a sliver of land almost entirely surrounded by Senegal. Its people live off tourism, fishing and groundnuts.

The IMF board said Gambia had given inaccurate details or delayed information on spending from foreign-exchange reserves, domestic assets of the central bank, bank credit to the government and the basic primary fiscal balance.

Agustin Carstens, deputy managing director of the IMF, said there had been lengthy delays in giving information on the unrecorded spending to the fund.

He said there had been deviations of performance targets for the end of March and September 2001, with no sign that authorities would conduct a special audit of the foreign-exchange activities of the central bank.

"Under these circumstances, the executive board has decided to require the Gambia to make full repayment of the noncomplying disbursements during 2004, together with any interest accrued thereon, with the strong expectation of early repayment,” Carstens said in a statement.

The fund ordered Gambia to repay the money in four installments, with the first to be made within 30 days.

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