Press Release No. 02/44

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has reviewed a noncomplying disbursement to Senegal equivalent to SDR 9 million (about US$11.9 million) under Senegal's three-year Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) arrangement that expired on April 19, 2002. This disbursement had been made in April 15, 2002, conditional on the implementation of a prior action related to the increase in electricity tariffs effective March 1, 2002. However, the Fund was subsequently informed that the measure had not been implemented before the disbursement took place, rendering the disbursement noncomplying. Today, the Executive Board granted a waiver on the nonobservance of the prior action that lead to the noncomplying disbursement. ¹

Following the Executive Board's discussion on the matter, Eduardo Aninat, Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chairman, stated:

"The Executive Board regretted that the prior action related to the increase of electricity tariffs was not implemented at the time its decision was made to complete the second review under the third annual arrangement of the PRGF. The Board noted, however, that the deviation was minor and temporary in view of its limited financial impact, and that corrective actions have been taken to compensate for the delay so as to achieve the targeted impact of the measure through retroactive billing. As a result of these considerations, and based on the completeness of the newly provided information, the Executive Board decided to grant a waiver for the nonobservance of the prior action."

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¹ The Executive Board decision is in the context of the strengthened safeguards adopted in April 2000 on the use of IMF financial resources (see PIN No. 00/28).