Senegal warns of legal action over mismanagement of public funds

Senegal’s government on Thursday announced that it could take legal action against those responsible for “serious breaches” and mismanagement of the country’s public finances under former president Macky Sall.

The Audit Office, which is independent of government, on Wednesday pointed to “omissions” in the accounts during Sall’s last term of office between 2019 and 2024, notably on government debt and the budget deficit.

At a news conference in Dakar on Thursday, Justice Minister Ousmane Diagne said analysis of the report “has revealed serious breaches that could be subject to various criminal penalties”.

They included “forgery, misappropriation of public funds, money laundering and illicit enrichment”, he told reporters.

Diagne said former ministers and directors could be implicated, promising a full investigation.

The probe would “identify those responsible for the irregularities and bring them before the competent criminal court”, he said.

The Audit Office report highlighted that Senegal’s 2023 budget deficit was 12.3 percent by their calculations — more than double the 4.9 percent claimed by the then-government.

Total government debt that year reached nearly 100 percent of economic output, again higher than the tally announced by Sall’s administration.

It also pointed to “discrepancies in the public debt stock, over-financing anomalies and shortcomings in the management of bank deposits,” as well as “significant bank debt… not recorded in the state accounts”.

The facts reported are “presumed to constitute mismanagement, de facto mismanagement or criminal offences”, it added.

Last September, Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko accused Sall, who was in power from 2012 to 2024, of having presided over a government that falsified public finance figures.

Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye was elected last March on a promise to break with the status quo under Sall.

His Pastef party pledged economic transformation while tackling corruption, raising hopes among a largely youthful population facing high inflation and widespread unemployment.

A spokesman for the International Monetary Fund confirmed to AFP in November last year that the IMF had suspended its aid programme in Senegal “pending the validation of the audit report by the Audit Office”.

The IMF “welcomed” the report, saying that it “demonstrates the authorities’ commitment to great transparency”, a spokesman told AFP on Wednesday.