WASHINGTON, December 16, 2021— The World Bank approved a total of $250 million, comprised of a $125 million grant and a $125 million credit, to support the Democratic Republic of Congo’s efforts to increase mining revenue transparency and strengthen expenditure management at the central level and in selected provinces, with the ultimate goal of increasing funds available for public service delivery.
The Enhancing Collection of Revenue and Expenditure Management (ENCORE) Project is anchored in the government’s 2022-2027 public financial management (PFM) reforms strategy and will focus on helping the government to spend more efficiently and, therefore, increase the amount of resources available to sectoral spending ministries and at provincial level.
The project is ambitious in scope, encompassing complex reforms in PFM, fiscal decentralization, transparency in mining and state-owned enterprises, digitalization, and payroll. The Project’s interventions will support the government’s critical objectives to ensure that (i) more mining revenue is collected by the Treasury; (ii) budget execution is better controlled and aligned with the Parliament’s annual authorizations; (iii) multiple government bank accounts are consolidated into a single treasury account to better secure and manage public resources; (iv) an accounting system is established and more complete and relevant annual budget and financial reports are produced on a more timely and regular basis; (v) government capacity to supervise key state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is strengthened; and, (vi) the Court of Accounts exercises appropriate oversight while civil society participation in budget is enhanced for greater accountability.
Further, the Project will help the government define a formal mechanism to facilitate the fiscal transfers to provincial and local governments, as stipulated by the 2006 Constitution and the 2011 Public Financial Management Law. At the provincial level, the project will address challenges in revenue collection and support the provincial governments to establish well-functioning public financial management systems and institutions.
“The project is timely as it reinforces and buttresses the DRC government’s commitment and efforts to foster better public resource management and fight corruption, which are critical to increasing the funding available to provide services at central and sub-national levels,” said World Bank Country Director for DRC, Jean Christophe Carret.
While closely aligned with the government’s PFM Reform Strategy objectives and goals, the project responds to recommendations of the World Bank Group’s 2018 Systematic Country Diagnostic and will contribute to achieving one of the main objectives of the forthcoming World Bank Country Partnership Framework to build more inclusive institutions and strengthen governance. The project also complements support provided by other partners, including the European Union, International Monetary Fund, United Nations Development Program, African Development Bank, as well as from bilateral agencies such as France, Belgium, Germany, for public sector governance and PFM reforms in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
* The World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), established in 1960, helps the world’s poorest countries by providing grants and low to zero-interest loans for projects and programs that boost economic growth, reduce poverty, and improve poor people’s lives. IDA is one of the largest sources of assistance for the world’s 74 poorest countries, 39 of which are in Africa. Resources from IDA bring positive change to the 1.3 billion people who live in IDA countries. Since 1960, IDA has provided $458 billion to 114 countries. Annual commitments have averaged about $29 billion over the last three years (FY19-FY21), with about 70% going to Africa. Learn more online: IDA.worldbank.org. #IDAworks
