The faces that embody public governance in Senegal have changed, but the policies are not about to. To get a better idea of this, we need to listen again to President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who is responsible for defining the Nation’s policy, in his inaugural address on 2 April 2024, his address to the Nation on 3 April 2024, as a prelude to National Independence Day, and above all his first communication to the Council of Ministers on 9 April 2024. It is as if the same person who held the pen for President Macky Sall continues to officiate under the Diomaye-Sonko tandem. Reread the « five » new public policy directions contained in the « Senegal Systemic Transformation Project » and compare them with the five main directions set out in Macky Sall’s speech on 2 April 2019, the day of his investiture following his re-election!

It’s to note that the key commitments to « serve the State and not to serve ourselves », or to define policies to address the employment, economic and social progress concerns of young people and women, or to improve social inclusion and territorial equity, are all declared. The need to modernise public administration and the commitment to develop a policy of good governance were also noted. The policy of accountability has been announced by all the previous governments and relevant texts have been adopted.

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For example, the latest laws passed by the National Assembly on 30 January 2024 on the National Office against Fraud and Corruption (Ofnac) and the Financial Public Prosecutor’s Office had already taken into account Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s ideas on protecting whistle-blowers and cracking down on illicit financial flows. The latest memorandum from the Senegalese government to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last year is a fine illustration of this. There will be no change in paradigms or rules, but perhaps more political will. Similarly, the reform of the justice system remains unclear, and Bassirou Diomaye Faye does not seem to have a ready solution. He has borrowed from Amadou Ba, his unfortunate challenger in the presidential elections, his idea of organising a conference on justice. On this issue, as on that of the high cost of living, he is leaving it to dialogue and consultation to define the content and modalities, in a context of lifting subsidies on basic products.

The matrices remain the same. If anything has changed, it would be the name of the reference framework for economic and social policies. Macky Sall framed his actions within the framework of the Emerging Senegal Programme (Pse) and Bassirou Diomaye Faye brandished his « Project » which, it has to be said, remains a rather abstract grand idea. But the most surprising thing is that the new Head of State has not yet put his « Project » together. He has asked his Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, « on the basis of the Project and the presidential guidelines, to finalise, before the end of April 2024, the government’s action plan, with a precise timetable for achieving the objectives set ».  There is every reason to believe that the government will only be able to reheat the Priority Action Plan (PAP) already set out in phase 3 of the Pse. A government that has only just been installed, and whose ministers have not yet taken charge of their respective departments, let alone set up their cabinets, cannot draw up a new public policy, with objectives, means of action and a timetable, in 15 days.

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The human resources of the various technical ministries, who had worked to develop and monitor the Pse, will remain in their posts; although some of these senior civil servants have been promoted with the new government team. What’s more, how can a public policy be defined without involving the technical and financial partners who will be asked to fund it? The latter will be obliged to examine what is new in what will be proposed to them, to assess its feasibility and, above all, to see whether it is consistent with or correlates with the commitments already made to Senegal. The IMF, for example, conducted a negotiation mission from 27 April to 11 May 2023 on a new economic and financial programme with a three-year disbursement period, covering June 2023-June 2026, which will mobilise 1,150 billion CFA francs. The same can be said for many other partners. Certainly, the Senegalese government cannot decide on the agenda or pace of work of its foreign partners, or make them change their perspective on cooperation. On the other hand, the new authorities could pull funding sources out of their hats, outside the traditional frameworks and channels. If so, would they automatically cut themselves off from regular financial channels. On this point, the new government in Senegal urgently needs to connect with donors to find financial resources! 

They have been given a breath of fresh air with the disbursement announced this week of nearly 325 billion CFA francs that Macky Sall’s regime had finished negotiating. It remains to be seen whether a large part of these credits had not already been used up in advance. Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko was preparing to travel to Washington to make contact with the community of technical and financial partners. In the end, he apparently gave up, preferring to send his Ministers of the Economy (Sarr) and Finance (Diba) and the Secretary General of the Government (Lô). What fruit could he expect from such a trip if he did not yet have a ‘Project’ that had already been put together and endorsed by the partners? He risked being discredited if he appeared before the partners without proposing a public policy framework that met the essential and fundamental requirements. The adoption of the Pse by the donors required many months of work and discussions, and above all the holding of two consultative groups in Paris in 2014 and 2018. We do not see these partners changing their procedures or methods in order to endorse Senegal’s new authorities.

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By rushing off to Washington to meet with the Bretton Woods institutions, the government will be able to engage in institutional communication, but will by no means be returning with cheques. Prime Minister Sonko has already told the IMF that he will continue with the programme agreed with Senegal. The next disbursement is scheduled for July 2024, provided certain specific requirements are met. The long-heralded break with the past will have to wait on this issue, as it will on that of minting a new currency. Donors are waiting for Senegal on this crucial question of the idea of withdrawing from the community currency. Appointing a Minister of the Economy who advocates a national currency would not make things any easier.

Furthermore, what will the country’s debt capacity be while awaiting the new ratios that will depend on the re-basing of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the finalisation of which has been announced for July 2024, even though President Macky Sall has not stopped demanding results since 30 August 2023? 

The first wishes that President Bassirou Diomaye Faye entrusted to President Amadou Mame Diop!

Presidential candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye had promised to abolish certain public institutions in order to make budget savings. These institutions are the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (Cese) and the High Council for Local and Regional Authorities (Hcct). The budget savings will not really be very significant, as each of these two institutions is only allocated an annual budget of around 7.5 billion CFA francs, or some 0.10% of the total State budget. Penny-wise and pound foolish? Perhaps not so much! These measures could also provide an opportunity to hold up a few symbolic trophies to show that the State’s cost of living is being reduced.

Abdoulaye Wade used this stratagem in 2001 to abolish the Economic and Social Council (CES), which had always existed, and the Senate, established in 1999 by President Abdou Diouf. In 2004, President Wade replaced the Ces with the Council of the Republic for Economic and Social Affairs (Craes), which he again replaced with the Economic and Social Council (Ces) in 2008. In May 2007, he recreated the Senate. When Macky Sall came to power in 2012, the Craes was replaced by the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (Cese). In the same year, Macky Sall abolished the Senate in order, he claimed, to allocate budgetary resources to help flood victims. The lesson of history is that constitutional reforms are always an excuse for the political authorities to change the name of an institution and appoint their own political clientele. President Macky Sall has used and abused this process, perhaps going so far as to set up the Hcct (5 April 2016) or the National Commission for Dialogue and the Territories (21 December 2015).

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The President of the Republic, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, has verbally informed the President of the National Assembly, Amadou Mame Diop, of his desire to proceed with institutional reforms that will get rid of the Cese and the Hcct and increase the powers of the Prime Minister. It is not yet known which parliamentary majority the new political regime will be able to rely on to pass these reforms, or will he resort to a referendum? Moreover, various circles had thought (ultimately wrongly) that this question should be on the agenda for the first meeting of the Council of Ministers under Bassirou Diomaye Faye, on 9 April 2024. Discussions and apprehensions are rife, particularly on the question of giving more powers to the Prime Minister. Some would like to see a balance of power between President Faye and Prime Minister Sonko. Will this mean a change in the political system, which under Senegal’s current Constitution remains a presidential system? The draft text is still being kept secret, but it has to be said that there would be a need, at the very least, to rework the architecture or framework of the functional relationship between the Presidency of the Republic and the Prime Minister’s Office.

Correcting the dictates of Macky Sall to give Ousmane Sonko his full role

When President Macky Sall abolished the post of Prime Minister following the presidential election in February 2019, he transferred all the Prime Minister’s management powers to the Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic (Sgpr). Former Prime Minister Mahammad Boun Abdallah Dionne, in his new « station » of Sgpr, continued to approve contracts and other investment projects signed by the State of Senegal. He left his post for health reasons, and was replaced on 1 November 2020 by his deputy Oumar Samba Ba. The rehabilitation of the post of Prime Minister did not, however, persuade President Macky Sall to restore its management powers to the incumbent; the Sgpr continues to siphon off the Prime Minister’s traditional powers by continuing to oversee the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority..

Amadou Ba, appointed on 17 September 2022, may have been frustrated by this situation, but he never asked to be reinstated to the full extent of his powers as Prime Minister. He therefore did not have the latitude to sign contracts. This situation may prove convenient at a time when we are talking about the mismanagement of the defunct regime. This is the situation that Ousmane Sonko inherited. Undoubtedly, it will only be fair or equitable if the recommended reform gives him all the measurements of his Prime Minister’s suit! The decree on the distribution of State services, which we are still waiting for, should provide an initial answer to this question. On the other hand, the additional powers to be granted by legislation will be open to question.

By Madiambal DIAGNE / mdiagne@lequotidien.sn

  • Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH / Serigne S. DIAGNE