{"id":9496,"date":"2012-03-31T03:40:37","date_gmt":"2012-03-31T01:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/03\/africa-money-the-murky-world-of-africa-oil-back-in-spotlight\/"},"modified":"2012-03-31T03:40:37","modified_gmt":"2012-03-31T01:40:37","slug":"africa-money-the-murky-world-of-africa-oil-back-in-spotlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/africa-money-the-murky-world-of-africa-oil-back-in-spotlight\/","title":{"rendered":"AFRICA MONEY-The murky world of Africa oil back in spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Ed Stoddard<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

JOHANNESBURG, March 30<\/span> (Reuters) – The International
\nMonetary Fund had bad timing this week in approving the latest
\ntranche of a loan to oil-rich Angola, coinciding as it did with
\nthe issuance of a French arrest warrant for the son of
\nEquatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Both events highlight the murky world of African oil, one
\nlong linked to rampant graft, glaring income disparities and
\npolitical longevity: Africa’s longest-serving presidents run the
\nshows in Equatorial Guinea and Angola.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Let’s start with the IMF loan, which was approved on
\nWednesday, the final $132.9 million disbursement to Angola under
\nthe country’s $1.4 billion loan agreement made in 2009.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier, rights groups wrote to IMF Managing Director
\nChristine Lagarde urging the IMF’s executive board to withhold
\nthe final tranche until the Angolan government improved
\ntransparency on how it uses public funds.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

They also urged the government to explain a $32 billion
\ndiscrepancy in public funds thought to be linked to the state
\noil company, Sonangol.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The IMF said Angola, Africa’s second-largest oil producer
\nafter Nigeria, had taken measures to improve its accountability
\nin public spending and oil profit transfers.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps, but a lot remains to be explained.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

As Human Rights Watch has noted, the Angolan government has
\nnot yet explained a discrepancy of $32 billion in state funds
\nthought to be linked to Sonangol and spent or transferred from
\n2007-10 – a discrepancy flagged by the fund in October.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Ed Stoddard JOHANNESBURG, March 30 (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund had bad timing this week in approving the latest tranche of a loan to oil-rich Angola, coinciding as it did with the issuance of a French arrest warrant for the son of Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema. Both events highlight the murky […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-9496","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9496\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}