This was one of Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s promises upon his arrival at the highest office in Senegal: to take stock of the country’s economic situation. Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, who was entrusted with this transparency audit, presented the main conclusions this Thursday, September 26 with ministers. The charges against the old regime are numerous. Ousmane Sonko promised investigations into “ widespread corruption » raging, according to him, under the former power in place before April 2024, which he accused of having manipulated public finance figures.
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With our correspondent in Dakar, Gwendal Lavina
“ We were far from imagining that things were so catastrophic “, began by saying Ousmane Sonko, the Prime Minister, who evokes the mismanagement in the spending choices of the old regime and does not hesitate to pronounce the words of ” corruption ” And ” favoritism » to explain them.
“ The unbridled debt policy has given rise to non-transparent use of resources and favorable to widespread corruption “, he said to the press. He denounced a “ methodology (…) to misappropriate public funds en masse “.
“ The Macky Sall regime lied, manipulated the figures given to the Senegalese, to international partners, with the IMF in the lead. “, further asserts the head of government.
Moreover, the Minister of the Economy evokes his remarks with figures for the years 2019 to 2023: while the old regime publicly mentioned a debt of 65.9% of GDP over this period, it was on average in reality ten points higher, according to the current government’s audit. Same thing for the deficit announced at 5.5% of GDP, but which would have reached on average 10.4% over these four years.
Also present, the Minister of Justice, Ousmane Diagne, affirmed that legal consequences will be drawn and people prosecuted. These actions “ appear to have a criminal classification that the competent judicial authorities will have to determine by means of investigations that they deem appropriate “, declared Oumane Diagne.
It could not be otherwise, according to Ousmane Sonko, while the government will ask for efforts.
“ The next few months will be difficult, but should allow us to get back on the right path », concluded the Prime Minister.
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