Burundi's opposition FRODEBU party haswelcomed a move by the Paris club totally cancelling the debt the country owes,but claims President Pierre Nkurunziza's government will mismanage the funds. The oppositionsays despite goodwill from other international support, the government has sofar failed to live up to its promises. But the government rejects FRODEBU'saccusation as baseless, adding that it is committed to using resources freed bythe debt cancellation for priority areas identified in the poverty reductionstrategy. The Paris Club ofsovereign creditors Wednesday cancelled all the debt owed by Burundi, praisingBujumbura for what it describes as its ambitious economic program. It agreed towrite off about $125-million, amounting to 96 percent of the Burundi's debtstock at the end of 2008. OppositionFRODEBU spokesman Pancrase Cimpaye tells reporter Peter Clottey that the moneywould be used for the ruling party's propaganda ahead of next year's election.
"Thedecision of the debt cancellation is a good decision, but unfortunately, wedon't have good governance in our country right now. We are afraid that thatmoney would not be used to help the poor people of Burundi because for the lastthree or four years, we have seen the ruling party using money not to help theordinary people of Burundi, but to help themselves," Cimpaye said.
He said the rulingCNDD-FDD (Conseil National pour laDefense de la Democratie-Forces pour la Defense de la Democratie) party is onlyinterested in winning next year's election.
"Especially now that we are heading towardselection, we expect that that money will not help Burundi's poor, but maybeused only for the purposes of the election," he said.
Cimpaye said thegovernment will not use the money to help poor Burundians as it promised toboth local and international donors.
"That is the mainproblem which is the fact that the government is not going to live up to itspromise or word to use the money to help the poor. I can give you an example,like when over two million dollars was budgeted for the ministry of water, butthe person who was supposed to use the money for the ministry, who is adirector from our FRODEBU party. But when it was time for him to use the funds,he was told by the minister that he shouldn't touch the budgeted money, butthat it would be used by the president's office. This is unbelievable. I'mtelling you that the debt cancellation won't help Burundi in any way," Cimpayepointed out.
Cimpaye describedas unfortunate claims by the government that it would reduce poverty.
"I tell you thatthe money will not help in reducing poverty like the government told theinternational community. It would only be used for propaganda and for otherbusinesses. Maybe the president will buy his house or build one in othercountries, but that money won't help Burundians," he said.
TheParis Club adds that itscreditors are also committed to cancelling another $4.8 million owed by Burundion a bilateral basis.