The credibility of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is being questioned following the international bank’s recent mission to Botswana and claims that it met with other┬ástakeholders outside government.
The IMF advice that the Botswana government should cut its wage bill has set a cat among the pigeons, coming at a time when public workers are staging a seven-week strike to demand an increase.
The IMF adviced Botswana government that its “wage policy should be prudent and any nominal adjustment made in FY2011/12 would need to be financed by either over performance in revenues or expenditure savings generated elsewhere in the budget so that the budget deficit remains unchanged. Going forward, the government would need to reduce the size of the wage bill as a share of GDP as this remains rather high relative to comparator countries and is not sustainable. Reducing the wage bill would also require efforts to make the public service leaner and more efficient.”
The IMF, in a media statement, said its mission, led by Lamin Leigh, between 18 and 31 May, met with “Minister of Finance and Development Planning, the Honorable O. Kenneth Matambo; Bank of Botswana Governor, Ms. Linah K. Mohohlo, Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, Mr. Solomon M. Sekwakwa; senior government officials, development partners, and representatives from the private sector and civil society”.
 Curiously, the IMF did not specifically state which development partners and representatives from the private sector and civil society which it purports to have met with as is the case above.  The IMF Public Affairs Division had not responded to the Sunday Standard enquiries by the time of going to press while the Bank of Botswana, as the facilitator of the mission, failed to disclose specifically whom outside government the IMF met.
┬á“It is not for Bank of Botswana to say whom the IMF met with either from the private sector or the civil society. I can’t be the spokesperson for the IMF. It is not appropriate for me to translate their media statement,” BoB’s Head of Communications, Andrew Sesinyi, said over the weekend.
The Botswana Confederation of Commerce and Industry Manpower (BOCCIM) could not readily tell the Sunday Standard which of its affiliates met with the IMF mission. A spokesperson for BOCCIM, Tebogo Oletile, had not provided information by the time of going to press.
The Botswana Federation of Public Sector Unions (BOFEPUSO) leaders, Johnson Motshwarakgole and Andrew Motsamai, claim the IMF mission did not meet with organized labour nor were they informed about the presence of the IMF in Botswana. Likewise, the Leader of Opposition, Botsalo Ntuane, was taken aback by the IMF’s recent mission to Botswana.
“I have never heard of them. I doubt they even came. Who saw them? Who did they meet? We didn’t even see them in the Daily News. In any case, the IMF does not have an impeccable record when it comes to advising developing countries. What they recommend must not be taken as the gospel truth. The IMF is after all responsible for some of the most destructive socio-economic policies in the Third World,” the leader of opposition told the Sunday Standard.
Opposition Botswana National Front (BNF) spokesman, Moeti Mohwasa, has described the IMF as “a bourgeoisie institution which will want the government to pay low wages so that the private sector salaries are also low”, reacting to calls by the IMF for Botswana to cut her wage bill.
He argued that the IMF has the propensity to compare a State to a business, which can function well only if it is “mean and lean”. The party further argued that the urge was part of a viciously anti working class project, which goes along with privatization.
“Jobs done by workers who will be retrenched will be outsourced. As the law of demand and supply suggests, the aim is to have as many people as possible unemployed, which will ultimately lead to low workers’ salaries and exploitation. The aim being to create space for super profits,” offered the BNF spokesman.
The IMF said in a statement that its mission to the country was to review recent economic developments and prospects and policies to ensure continued macroeconomic stability and growth.
Meanwhile, the government spokesman Dr. Jeff Ramsay has dismissed as false a story carried by the AFP headlined ‘IMF orders Botswana to cut wage bill’.
“The report is false. Botswana is not indebted to the IMF’s structural adjustments. The IMF cannot order us to cut a wage bill. There is a difference between ordering and urging us to do so,” Ramsay said.
