VZCZCXRO4720
PP RUEHGI RUEHMA RUEHROV
DE RUEHNJ #0534/01 3221548
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 171548Z NOV 08 ZDS
FM AMEMBASSY NDJAMENA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6588
INFO RUCNFUR/DARFUR COLLECTIVE
RUEHAE/AMEMBASSY ASMARA 0194
RUEHDK/AMEMBASSY DAKAR 1414
RUEHLC/AMEMBASSY LIBREVILLE 1076
RUEHTRO/AMEMBASSY TRIPOLI 0518

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NDJAMENA 000534 
 
C O R R E C T E D  C O P Y (CLASSIFICATION - UNCLAS) 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
LONDON AND PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHERS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/13/2018 
TAGS: ECON EFIN IMF PGOV PREL US IBRD MASS CD
SUBJECT: IMF DELEGATION IN NDJAMENA TO PURSUE THE FUND'S 
"PRAGMATIC" ENGAGEMENT WITH CHAD 
 
REF: A. NDJAMENA 519 
     ¶B. NDJAMENA 509 
     ¶C. NDJAMENA 288 
 
NDJAMENA 00000534  001.4 OF 002 
 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1.  (SBU) The head of the current visiting IMF delegation 
told the Ambassador Nov 12 that the visit was aimed at 
helping Chad get to the budgetary performance point at which 
the IMF could hope to put a Staff-Monitored Program in place. 
 The IMF wanted to help Chad's public finance team craft a 
reasonable 2009 budget. If the GOC could craft a proper 
budget and then show that it was adhering to sound public 
finance management procedures under it, the IMF could plan to 
visit again in the first quarter of 2009 to conceivably put a 
six-month-long Staff-Monitored Program in place at that time. 
 The IMF team leader noted the GOC's lack of budgetary 
discipline in many areas, but said that he believed that the 
Prime Minister and his new Finance Minister were trying to do 
the right thing, but that others in the cabinet were not as 
friendly to the IFIs and far less willing to cooperate with 
them.  We continue to admire the IMF's tenacity in 
maintaining a working relationship however frayed with Chad. 
The tale of Chad's budgetary deficiencies is an old one.  We 
continue to hope that the IMF's patience with the GOC will 
finally start to pay off in 2009, but we are not/not yet 
prepared to bet on that outcome.  END SUMMARY. 
 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  The Ambassador received the head of the IMF 
Article IV (Surveillance Mission) delegation to Chad, Mr. 
Sukhwinder Singh, and the local IMF representative Joseph 
Karangwa, November 13.  They briefed on the progress of the 
current visit and prospects for a better Chad-Fund 
relationship in the future. 
 
¶3. (SBU)  Singh reviewed the recent history of the Fund's 
engagement with Chad, emphasizing that the IMF's approach was 
a "pragmatic" one.  After repeated failures of formal 
programs, the IMF had attempted last July to put in place a 
less formal, "Staff-Monitored Program."  That too, failed. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  The current IMF visit was aimed at helping Chad 
get to the point where the IMF could hope to put a 
Staff-Monitored Program in place.  The IMF wanted to help 
Chad's public finance team, now led by competent technocrat 
but political novice Gata Ngoulou (Finance Minister since 
September 2008), craft a reasonable 2009 budget. If the GOC 
could craft a proper budget and then show that it was 
adhering to sound public finance management procedures under 
it, the IMF could plan to visit again in the first quarter of 
2009 to examine progress to date.  If there were indeed 
progress, the IMF could conceivably put a six-month-long 
Staff-Monitored Program in place at that time. 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  Singh noted the GOC's lack of budgetary discipline 
in many areas. One problem area was in the security/defense 
sector. Singh said that the IMF was not opposed to including 
substantial security/defense sector spending in the 2009 
budget, but the GOC must be more transparent in the line 
items that made up the security/defense sector. It was not 
clear to the IMF just how many people were in the Chadian 
military:  The GOC seemed to be paying 70-80,000 people, but 
it was not clear who or where they were and what they were 
doing. The GOC was telling the IMF that it would cut 2009 
spending on military hardware by 75 percent from the 2008 
level, but this seemed a very difficult accomplishment, 
however laudable. Singh said that Chad's capital spending in 
priority/social sectors -- health, education, roads -- was 
quite large, but that there was an utter lack of ministerial 
planning, follow-up, and coordination that rendered many 
capital projects useless.  (Examples:  schools without 
teachers or books; health clinics without staff or medicine.) 
In addition to taking a toll on Chad,s fiscal position, the 
unfinished projects could have political and social 
ramification because of unfulfilled expectations. Some key 
sectors, especially water and electricity, were not targeted 
for capital spending, which was holding back development. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Singh said that he believed that Prime Minister 
Youssouf Saleh Abbas and his new Finance Minister were trying 
to do the right thing, but that others in the cabinet were 
not as friendly to the IFIs and far less willing to cooperate 
 
NDJAMENA 00000534  002.4 OF 002 
 
 
with them.  Singh also said that the recent visit by the 
World Bank was encouraging, because the Bank and the Fund 
preferred to work in collaboration, which the absence of a 
resident Bank representative here made difficult. 
 
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COMMENT 
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¶7.  (SBU) We continue to admire the IMF's tenacity in 
maintaining a working relationship however frayed with Chad. 
The tale of Chad's budgetary deficiencies is an old one.  We 
continue to hpe that the IMF's patience with the GOC will 
finlly start to pay off in 2009, but we are not/not yt 
prepared to bet on that outcome. 
 
MINIMIZE COSIDERED 
NIGRO