Africa, Chad, pol. interna Nyt 05-12-13
Il Chad viene meno all’impegno a utilizzare i proventi petroliferi per ridurre la povertà
Lydia Polgreen
Chad:
10 milioni di abitanti, economia basata prevalentemente su agricoltura
e allevamento, al 167° posto su 177 nell’indice di sviluppo ONU, area
il doppio della California.
Dall’indipendenza dalla
Francia nel 1960, tormentato da guerre civili: come il confinante
Sudan, il Nord in prevalenza musulmano ha il controllo politico, il Sud
è metà cristiano e metà animista.
Con i disordini nel Darfur, che si trova ad Est, si sono rifugiati in Chad 300 000 profughi.
Nell’Est un gruppo di soldati, che hanno abbandonato l’esercito del Chad, ha dato il via a un movimento di ribellione; in risposta il presidente, Idriss Déby, al potere dal 1990 dopo una guerra civile, vuole investire maggiormente nella sicurezza.
Dal 2003 il Chad ha iniziato ad esportare petrolio, gli introiti sono stati di circa $300mn.
La Banca Mondiale ha finanziato l’oleodotto da $4,2MD, lungo 670 miglia, che parte dal Sud del Chad e attraversa il Camerun.
In cambio il governo
del Chad si è impegnato a versare tutti i proventi petroliferi pagati
da ExxonMobil e dai suoi partner in custodia amministrata presso
Citibank di Londra, di cui il 72% è destinato ad investimenti
contro la povertà, il 10% è accantonato da versare in un “fondo per le
future generazioni” (assicurazioni?), la parte rimanente è suddivisa
tra governo federale e (il 5%) amministrazioni locali dove è estratto
il petrolio.
Le imposte sui profitti petroliferi e le altre entrate indirette finiscono nelle casse statali.
Il Chad intende ora modificare gli accordi, codificati in una legge,
aumentando al 30% la quota che il governo federale può spendere senza
controlli esterni, per sanare il bilancio statale (pagare i dipendenti
pubblici) e per spese militari.
Chad Backs Out of Pledge to Use Oil Wealth to Reduce Poverty
By LYDIA POLGREEN
the World Bank said more than five years ago that it would help Chad
build a $4.2 billion pipeline to export the oil discovered in the
southern part of that landlocked, deeply impoverished nation,
it seemed an opportunity to give the lie to the resource curse that is
the painful experience of virtually every oil-rich African nation: that
oil wealth typically creates more problems for poor countries than it
solves.
loans to build a 670-mile underground pipeline through Cameroon to
export its oil, the Chadian government passed a law requiring that
almost all of the money it earns on oil exports be spent for poverty
reduction and that 10 percent be put aside as a "future generations
fund," to leave something behind once the estimated one billion barrels of oil have been exhausted.
But
in October, Chad’s government abruptly announced at a meeting with the
World Bank in N’Djamena, the capital, that it plans to alter that law
and funnel more money into its general budget and increase spending on
security.
future generations fund would be scrapped and military spending would
be added to the list of "priority sectors" that until now focused on
spending in areas like agriculture, housing, health care and education.
are fundamental changes to the agreement Chad made on oil revenue
management," said Ian Gary, an expert on oil at Oxfam America who has
written several research reports critical of the Chad oil industry.
changes, he said, make it far less likely the people of Chad will see
any benefit from the billions of dollars Chad’s oil fields are likely
to pump into the economy, which in turn undermines the antipoverty
rationale of the World Bank’s role in the project.
government faces serious financial problems, and needs the money to pay
salaries for civil servants and to deal with security threats, and
has offered technical assistance to help bring spending under control.
"The adopted bill redefines the priority areas, abolishes the future
generations fund, alters the way in which funds are allocated and
extends the law to apply to new oilfields," Hourmadji Moussa Doumgor, a
government spokesman, told Reuters.
the statement said. "To the contrary, they threaten to undermine the
objectives of socioeconomic development, poverty reduction,
accountability and transparency that guided World Bank Group and other
international support for the Chad-Cameroon pipeline project."
World
Bank officials have been in constant negotiations with the Chadian
government over the proposed law, which is now before the legislature. Approval
is largely a formality because the legislature is controlled by the
party of Idriss Déby, who seized power after a civil war in 1990 and
was elected president in 1996.
Under the
current law, all payments made by ExxonMobil and its partners, which
run the oil operation, go into an escrow account at Citibank in London,
while taxes on oil profits and other indirect revenue go directly into
the state treasury.
Of the money
that goes to the escrow account, 10 percent is set aside for Chad’s
post-oil future, 72 percent goes to poverty reduction project and the
remainder is split between the federal government and the local
authorities where oil is extracted.
committee that includes government officials and civil society
representatives must approve projects paid for with money from direct
oil sales. In addition to scrapping the future fund, the new law would double the percentage of money the federal government can spend without oversight to 30 percent.
proposed changes have drawn angry reactions from civic groups in Chad,
many of which were skeptical about the pipeline deal to begin with and
warned the World Bank that the government would pull out once the oil
money started flowing.
said Delphine Djiraibe of the Chadian Association for the Promotion and
Defense of Human Rights, one of the groups that fought the pipeline
deal. "Now that everything is finished and money is coming in, the
government is doing whatever they want regardless of the agreement they
have signed with World Bank or commitments they have made to use oil
money to fight poverty."
Chad, one of Africa’s
poorest countries, has a long history of instability and bloodshed. A
vast, arid land about three times the size of California, it is home to
10 million people.
A majority of its citizens
rely on subsistence agriculture and animal herding. It ranks 167 of 177
nations on the United Nations Development Index. Transparency
International’s 2005 survey of corruption around the world gave it the
worst score, an ignominy it shares with Bangladesh.
Since
gaining independence from France in 1960, it has been tormented by
civil wars fueled by ethnic and religious tensions. Like Sudan, its
restive neighbor to the east, its northern population is largely Muslim
and has dominated the country’s politics, while its southern half is
largely Christian and animist.
rule has been a relatively stable period in the country’s history, but
the troubles in the Darfur region of Sudan, which borders eastern Chad,
have spilled over into Chad along with 300,000 refugees.
Internal divisions, along with reports of Mr. Déby’s failing health,
have led to much speculation that the government is on shaky ground.
The push to spend more on security has occurred as the Chadian military has been afflicted by defections and low morale.
and Mr. Déby overhauled the republican guard responsible for his safety
in October. Last month, he also shuffled the military leadership.
and under the petroleum revenue management law, two-thirds has gone to
things like education, water systems, health care and basic
infrastructure and transportation.
$30 million has gone into the future generations fund, while 5 percent
of the money has gone back to the oil-producing regions for development.
Copyright 2005The New York Times