The management of public funds, “Democratic decline and the impunity of men of power” are at the heart of the dispute after a report by the Court of Auditors.
MO12345LEMOND With AFP
The Senegalese authorities prohibited, Thursday, a demonstration scheduled for Friday, January 6 in Dakar by the opposition, to denounce irregularities in the management of an anti-Cavid fund noted in a report by the Court of Auditors, A- we learned from an official source.
A decree of the prefect of Dakar invokes that “the selected place [for the event] is the subject of major work” linked to a bus project rolling on exclusive tracks and the preparation of the feast of the Independence scheduled for April 4.
The place of the nation, envisaged for the demonstration, “is marked by a continuous presence of machines and workers which now makes it impossible to hold rallies, due to the risk of accident” and delay in work , according to the text. The prefect indicates, consequently, “not being able to give a favorable continuation” to the request of the opposition.
Place de la Nation, near downtown Dakar, usually houses demonstrations, such as that of December 30, 2022 at the call of civil society organizations against irregularities in the management of the anti-COVVID fund .
“breaches” and “overcharges”
The main coalition of the opposition Yewwi Askan Wi (Yaw, free the people in Wolof language) had called to demonstrate on Friday to “contest the way this government manages our public funds” and against “democratic decline and the ‘ Impunity of men of power “.
An audit report from the Senegal Court of Auditors, published in mid-December, relates to the expenses made in 2020 and 2021 on the “Riposte fund against the effects of COVVI-19”.
This fund, funded by the State of Senegal and international donors, is an amount of 1,000 billion CFA francs (1.5 billion euros) including more than 740 billion CFA francs (more than 1.1 billion euros) were officially spent, according to the report.
The document pointed out “breaches”, “overcharges”, “absences of supporting documents” of expenses, some of which, moreover, are “not linked to the covid”.
The government has defended itself by stressing that the shortcomings reported on less than 1 % of the total amount of the fund and promised to follow the recommendations of the Court of Auditors which requested the opening of judicial information against responsible in ministries.