BY SOLOMON DIBABA
Terrorist TPLF is at the last ditch of its attempts to disintegrate Ethiopia into fragmented principalities that could provide it with an excellent opportunity to spread its reign of terror across the Horn of Africa. Systematic economic sabotage is one of its strategies to destabilize Ethiopia and thereby create a breeding ground for terrorist organizations that uphold the same aim in the region.
Some of us think that TPLF dominated government has made enormous contributions to the economic development of this country through successive double digit economic growth. Economic growth is only a quantitative indicator for the state of the economy of any country and it only partially indicates one aspect of economic development.
Although economic liberalization and some structural adjustments were introduced way back in 1994 during the Transition Government as part of the requirements for loans and economic assistance from the IMF and World Bank, terrorist TPLF led EPRDF government dwarfed the participation of the private sector in the economy by establishing more than 30 endowment companies by confiscating public property and financial resources. These companies were owned and managed by TPLF officials and covered almost all economic sectors including transport, manufacturing industries, service and construction sectors.
Public investment in all sectors amounted to more than 70% and the private sector was unable to compete with these party owned companies which enjoyed duty free services and lucrative loans from local banks.
The program for rapid economic development as envisaged on GTP I and II were originally geared towards a rapid and a double digit economic growth that could enable the nation to attain millennium development goals (MDGs) (MOFED 2010). The fundamental principles of the first growth and transformation plan (GTP I) were to sustain faster and equitable economic growth, maintaining agriculture as a major source of economic growth, creating favorable conditions for the industry to play key role in the economy, enhancing expansion and quality of infrastructure development, enhancing expansion and quality of social development, building capacity and deepen good governance and promote women and youth empowerment and equitable benefit. (MOFED 2010). However, constrained by financial shortfalls and other managerial challenges, the private sector was unable to compete with party owned economic institutions due to financial constraints. Furthermore, most of the components of the Transformations Plans were doomed to failure.
For over two decades, the export sector continued to dwindle even in major export commodities like coffee, hides and skins. Even at its best times, the private sector was dominated by investments by foreign based companies. For instance, despite the efforts made to lure local investors into the industrial parks by providing a wide range of incentives, only a couple of companies managed to start business in the industrial parks. The economic policy of revolutionary democracy coined by terrorist TPLF only helped the party owned companies to flourish and serve major source of income for the lavish life of its leaders.
One of the worst cases of economic sabotage and corruption conducted by TPLF was conspicuously visible in the management of METEC and the subsidiary companies which were exclusively managed by army generals and commanders well positioned in TPLF. Report by the federal police indicated that between 2010-2018, 33 suspects including the director general of METC has conducted 30 international procurements worth 1 billion USD with no legal tenders. METEC officials managed and conducted illegal sea trade with two old ships bought from Ethiopian Shipping Lines pocketing the money for their own and TPLF secret undertakings in the country. Besides, the misappropriation of more than 6 billion Birr from the fund allotted for the construction of GERD led to the stalling of the project fat beyond the planned project lifetime. Besides, TPLF officials in charge of clearing the project site for GERD misappropriated more than 2 billion birr.
The above mentioned facts regarding METEC are only the tip of the iceberg as the terrorist organization was using government financial sources and project funds for the enrichment of party leaders who were busy constructing luxurious villas and apartments and to ensure enough fund for TPLF to engaged in all kinds of punitive activities to destroy the economic basis of Ethiopia and thereby frustrate the national efforts underway for the battle against poverty.
Over the last 27 years, according to estimates by experts 70% percent of mega projects that were commissioned in the country failed due to lack of implementation capacity and financial embezzlements that were rampant in these projects.
Terrorist TPLF mismanaged and misused project targeted loans by assigning its own officials on project management teams to treacherously implement patron – client relationship with donors and also politicized project implementation standards by deliberately delaying the speed on implementation in sugar, railway and other mega projects. Under its leadership, Ethiopia was subjected to 2.6 trillion Birr in outstanding debt.
Vast contraband trade by TPLF officials in cooperation with former president of Somali Region and local officials, money laundering and a network of financial sabotage through illegal foreign currency exchange was systematically organized from Addis Ababa to Togo Uchalli. Recently the government has clamped down on several financial institutions engaged in money transfer for their role in illicit financial transitions that were used by TPLF.
Hoarding of illegally exchanged foreign currency from the market was meant to exacerbate the already visible shortage of foreign currency and to further escalate the galloping hyperinflation in the country. The financial sector was indeed a major war front that TPLF targeted to decapitate the economic development of the country.
Systematic looting of public properties in areas temporarily occupied by TPLF in Tigray and Amhara regions is a strategy constantly used by terrorist TPLF to provide supplies for its rag tag armed forces which were trying to block a major international road transport network from Djibouti to Mekele via Afar region in an attempt to chock the country from conducting critical foreign trade transactions.
As a matter of fact, terrorist TPLF’s economic prowess and the formation of its endowments companies was originally based on looting of public and private properties and putting them under the custody of the fascist political organization.
Recently, the police unveiled a huge stockpile of cast iron bars that are used in the construction industry. The stockpile envisaged creating a considerable shortage of construction materials and to promote further inflation in the sector. The terrorist TPLF was directly behind such criminal acts which targeted the construction sector as a major component of the Ethiopian economy.
The recent skyrocketing of financial inflation of Birr against the dollar is a systematic outcome of a deliberate sabotage triggered by illegal trafficking of foreign currency by terrorist TPLF supporters and selfish traders who are compromising the national interest of the country against their selfish economic motives.
Why did the TPLF focus on dwarfing the economic sector of Ethiopia? Terrorist TPLF has a wider strategy of igniting major socio-economic crisis in the country as a means of creating total public dissatisfaction on the government as a step towards creating a national political crisis that would be difficult to stope. On the other hand, terrorist TPLF wishes to effectively fish into the troubled waters to ensure the total disintegration of the social fabric of unity among the peoples of Ethiopia.
The whole motive of terrorist TPLF hinges around doing everything under the sun to ensure that the interests of their leaders here and in the diaspora are served. The expectation expressed by the terrorist TPLF is based on the support they hope to receive in blending their own narrow and chauvinistic interests with the adversaries of the country who wish to see weak and poor Ethiopia suitable for their diktat.
Editor’s Note: The views entertained in this article do not necessarily reflect the stance of The Ethiopian Herald
The Ethiopian Herald August 7/2021
