© RFI/Sonia Rolley
The offices of the General Inspectorate of Finance in Kinshasa, DRC, in October 2020.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Observatory of Public Expenditure (Odep) published, Friday, January 7, a critical report on the year 2021. The evaluation of this NGO is limited to the end of September but, according to her , public spending did not allow ” neither to create wealth, nor to promote economic growth, nor to improve the social conditions of the population ».
With our correspondent in Kinshasa, Pascal Mulegwa
Expenses were made for salaries and other needs of political institutions, against the backdrop of budget overruns. The Odep thus regrets that the State has spent more than 500 million dollars for the payment of mileage allowances, secret research costs or for the payment of the personal expenses of the Head of State, among others.
However, these lines of credit represent overruns with little impact on the population, says Odep.The report stresses that the planned spending for health, education, agriculture and infrastructure has not been fully executed .
Irritation
The NGO is thus irritated by the part reserved for investments. In 2021, the state spent only a quarter of the planned $ 128 million, or about 10% of the funds used by the presidency.
Remuneration remains the main item of expenditure. It concerns 80% of disbursements. The country’s flagship institutions are too greedy.
The presidency, for example, reached 211% of overruns representing more than $ 250 million. In particular, the number of employees of the Tshisekedi administration doubled between 2019 and 2021.
Read also: DRC: a report from the Observatory of public expenditure points to poor governance
The same goes for the office of the National Assembly, which pays nearly 3,000 cabinet members, apart from the 500 deputies.