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. ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface ----------------------------------------------------------------------------