The Sudanese Prime Minister renews his criticism of the military’s importance in the national economy, a persistence that risks pointing out the high-ranking officers who want to retain their benefits, after entering into a historic agreement in August 2019 for a gradual transfer of power to civilians. Abdallah Hamdok is determined to end the throttling of senior military and intelligence officials over the country’s economy.
WithStanislas Ndayishimiye, from RFI’s finance department
For the Sudanese Prime Minister, although it is normal for the military to invest in security-related companies, it is “unacceptable” for them to do so in other sectors of the economy.
Under the regime of Omar al-Bashir, generals and senior security officials have carved out the lion’s share in the most profitable sectors such as the exploitation of gold, gum arabic, meat exports, the flour trade or sesame.
Abdallah Hamdok’s latest outing on Tuesday, December 14, took place on the day when Washington formally removed Sudan from the list of countries that support terrorism, which now allows it to calmly consider trade with the rest of the world and to attract investors. The United States encourages the new Sudanese leaders to embark on the path of good governance.
The refusal of the army chief
One week ago, on December 8, the US Congress passed a law on “Sudan’s democratic transition, accountability and transparency”. “Civil control must be established over the finances and assets belonging to the security forces,” the text states. The law even recommends transfer to the Ministry of Finance or to any other entity that can be controlled by the civilian power, the shareholding of companies owned by the military.
For today, these companies belonging to the generals do not pay taxes on the profits and work in total opacity, while Sudan is still thrown into the economic downturn that caused the fall of General Omar al-Bashir.
The head of the Sovereignty Council, the country’s highest executive body, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, also the head of the army, refuses to transfer these companies to the government. He’s just saying he’s ready for them to pay taxes.
►Also read: US withdraws Sudan from list of countries supporting terrorism
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