CHAPTER FOUR: ECONOMIC GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT __________________________________________________________________________ implementation is also perceived by the public as part of the same network of corruption and illicit enrichment. It should, however, be noted that, for some people, the slow spending of budget allocations is due mainly to the sluggishness of disbursement mechanisms, the levels of competence of budgetary authorities, splitting up of expenditure procedures, and the practice of making demands that fall outside the specifications. 424. Compliance with most of the WAEMU macroeconomic convergence criteria is an accomplishment to be commended in Benin. However, this has been achieved in a climate of widespread corruption and increasing poverty. Macroeconomic performance, while the population is being impoverished, is an obvious sign that stabilising the macroeconomic framework is not the same thing as stabilising development, which is what the current APRM exercise hopes to do. 425. The CRM noted that the macroeconomic convergence criteria of WAEMU, as well as the requirements and conditions of the programmes of international financial institutions (the IMF and the World Bank, in particular), also limit the country’s room for manoeuvre. However, it seems that low salaries cause ‘petty’ corruption as people try to take advantage of state tools at their disposal to supplement their incomes. Some even assert that this is morally acceptable. One macroeconomic convergence criterion is that tax should not exceed 17% of GDP. As Benin is at 14.4%, it is possible for the country to increase its revenue through taxes – over and above the current efforts to broaden the tax base – and to reach the level of the WAEMU convergence criterion. This will enable the country to increase its revenue and possibly contemplate an increase in the incomes of the citizens (particularly civil servants). The Ministry of Finance seems to be sceptical about this, arguing that the burden of arrears and the lack of career prospects, among others, are all factors that help to mitigate the impact of the increase in state revenue that results from the successes in meeting the macroeconomic convergence criteria. However, the CRM believes that this argument does not carry much weight when considered in the light of the losses incurred by the state through corruption, financial misappropriation and illicit enrichment – all due largely to the low salaries of civil servants. The state of Benin should find ways and means of combating all forms of corruption in the ‘lower categories’ and especially in the ‘high places’. 426. Still at the level of macroeconomic policies, the implementation of the policy of the transfer and privatisation of public enterprises is sinuous and opaque, thereby indicating that policies are unpredictable and not transparent. This is another area where corruption and illicit enrichment abound. 427. Generally speaking – and with the exception of the preparation process for GPRS II that was recently adopted – the participation of stakeholders in preparing and implementing economic policy remains low in Benin. Very often, the people do not identify with these policies, but they are nevertheless often required to bear the consequences of policies that they did not help to develop and which, therefore, seem to be imposed on them. This tends to generate resentment or resignation. It is expected that the initiative, by the 154