Sep 25, 2009

DAKAR (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund urged Chad on Friday to curtail public spending and to better manage oil revenues in a first review since the central African country asked the IMF to begin monitoring.

Overspending on sectors including security means that Chad, which is looking to re-establish credentials with donors as oil revenues have taken a hit from the fall in world prices, will miss its 2009 financial targets, the IMF said.

The IMF warning follows a report the International Crisis Group (ICG) think tank that said hopes of oil easing Chad's dire poverty have quickly been replaced by evidence of rampant corruption, increased rebellion and political repression.

Chad has agreed to an IMF Staff Monitored Program (SMP), which is meant to improve donor relations after a row over oil revenues, which were meant to be spent on the poor but analysts say have been directed to the military to fight eastern rebels.

"Implementation of the staff-monitored program has been uneven in the period through end-August," Christian Josz, IMF mission chief for Chad, said, adding that public spending had exceeded targets by "sizeable margins".

The IMF said that the authorities have agreed to take steps to reduce the gap between targets and actual spending in 2009.

"This will mainly entail some slowing of the pace of spending on non-priority investment projects," Josz said.

Chad is one of the poorest in the world and has experienced conflict for all but four of the past 30 years.