US embassy cable - 04DJIBOUTI346

UNCLAS DJIBOUTI 000346 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR AF/E; STATE ALSO PASS WORLD BANK AND IMF 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID, EFIN, ECON, PGOV, DJ 
SUBJECT: AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK WARY OF GIVING  AID TO 
DJIBOUTI 
 
1. (U) African Development Bank (ADB) Economist 
charged with East Africa, Mahamadou Drame, met with 
Pol/Econ Off March 9th to discuss U.S. aid to Djibouti 
and ADB's plan for Djibouti.  Drame inquired about 
which areas United States aid would cover and asked 
how money given to Djibouti is managed.  He said he is 
tasked with coordinating with donors to better 
organize ADB's program to best help Djibouti.  Drame 
was very interested in whether cooperation between 
international donor organizations was happening and 
whether there were plans to begin such cooperation. 
Pol/Econ Off noted that the Ambassador has expressed 
a desire to begin a similar coordination. 
 
2. (U) Drame was especially concerned with the amount 
of money given to Djibouti in terms of military aid; 
how it was implemented, was there monitoring, and 
who controlled the money. 
 
3. (U) Drame commented that ADB has put on hold the 
seven million dollars earmarked for Djibouti because 
IMF monitoring has not occurred for over a year. 
(Comment: He implied that ADB would like to release 
the funds during a period of IMF monitoring to ensure 
proper usage. End Comment.)  Drame saluted the fact 
that the Government of Djibouti has put in place an 
entity dedicated to external financing within the 
Ministry of Finance.  However, ADB still feels that 
Djibouti has many weaknesses that need to be addressed. 
Drame indicated that ADB could offer only a small 
amount of assistance to Djibouti because of its 
performance record. 
RAGSDALE