Economic Chaos and Deception

Abstract

The continuous instability in the Sudanese economy is prolonged to an almost total disability or ignorance in basic economic and administration principles. By the beginning of the year 2014, exactly at January 07, the Akhabar Daily newspaper carried an interview with Professor Issam AW Mohamed. The latter was prophesying the collapse of the Sudanese economy for the previous 18 years. In this article written in Arabic, he emphasized that the current administration was not and is not able to change the course of economic destruction the country which is accelerating. Furthermore, he emphasized the necessity of total change which amounts to the removal of the current regime as a condition to the beginning of economic resilience in the country. In this article he criticized the budget as based on imaginary estimations and unforeseen resources. Moreover, that the continuous internal civil conflicts, the consequent establishment of power and economic small elite group, a cabal has rendered a country with a multitude of resources into a economically broken land spread with all-stretched beggars for handouts, including the regime. The result is an economic chaos and continuous impoverishment of the people.

The main theme of the article conclusions were:

1. The conformed budget of 2014 depended on imaginary resources and gave the Sudanese people promises that cannot be fulfilled;

2. The current economic administration followed previous ones in the same steps of deception to prolong their existence and is enduring existence under the same cloak. Therefore it cannot change neither improve the economic situation.

3. There is a continuous and methodological destruction of the country’s economic institutions that cannot be blamed on exogenous powers as always vouched by the regime. It is evident that annihilation of the Sudan’s economic productive sectors is conducted either by planned administrative mismanagement, incompetency, bad economic resources allocations, or plain corruption.

4. Economic irrationalities in dealing with the world that lead to hostile environment. The results were boycotts and embargos that rendered Sudan into an imprisoned island in a continuously increasing cooperative world, specially in international trade and technological transfers.

5. The resultant isolation deprived the country from foreign direct investments, except for the economic predators who were mining its resources and enclosing the country in mono-usury mega-corporations/country.

6. The latter points, point at an open access to an eventual corruption syndrome. That became a reality whereas uni-power with totalitarian control of all the country’s institutions, legal, executive and economic, into an institutionalized corruption corpse. The country’s continuously diminishing resources were siphoned by elite who controlled the media from their ivory niches and reflected illusive people’s prosperity that does materialize.

7. The regime’s dogmatic structure continues to give reasons for ill-administration to hegemonize the power of the masses which explains the latent reactions.

8. Explicit corruption became entrenched in all aspects of a citizen’s daily life. Government expenditure sky-rocketed even with deficits and resources diminishment. The results were exhibited in the only available resources with rising taxes and minimized governmental services.

9. The predictions that came in January 2014 were all true and materialized to be true at the end of 2014. Moreover, the accelerated collapse continued into 2015 where the country stands on the final steps into an abyss of famine.

Note: Downloadable document is in English and Arabic.

Keywords: Sudan, Economic Chaos, Government Expenditure

JEL Classification: A1, C9, E40