DAKAR (Reuters) -Senegal hopes for a new International Monetary Fund programme by June, Finance Minister Cheikh Diba said on Thursday, as the government vowed to investigate alleged malfeasance after an audit found that former authorities misreported key data.
The IMF had suspended its existing $1.8 billion credit facility to Senegal pending a review of state finances, which confirmed on Wednesday that the debt and budget deficit were much wider than former President Macky Sall’s administration had reported.
Speaking at a press conference, Diba said he hoped a new programme with the IMF could be agreed by June with a disbursement soon after.
Justice Minister Ousmane Diagne said at the press conference that in a follow-up on results of the audit, the government would investigate alleged cases of embezzlement of public funds, forgery, and money laundering.
Diagne said the investigations could implicate former ministers and directors of public institutions during the 2019-2024 period, but he declined to give names.
Former President Sall’s Alliance for the Republic party (APR) rejected Wednesday’s review of the country’s finances by the Court of Auditors, saying in a statement on Thursday that the court had itself validated settlement laws for the past budgets in question.
The IMF did not immediately respond to a request for comment. On Wednesday it said it would look at the court’s report and initiate consultations with the Senegalese authorities to address issues raised.
(Reporting by Bate Felix;Additional reporting by Diadie BaWriting by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Toby Chopra, Leslie Adler and Sandra Maler)
