Activists call for citizens’ audit of foreign debt

Bangladesh is overburdened with debt from foreign creditors controlling the shots, they said at the workshop, held in Dhaka from March 3-4. The workshop was attended by CADTM members various South Asian countries, Japan and Belgium, as well as Bangladeshi policymakers and activists. The participants deliberated on the issue of debt and the disastrous impacts of lending by International Financial Institutions (IFIs) such as the World Bank, IMF, ADB, JICA, etc. Dr Eric Toussaint, co-founder and spokesperson of CADTM International, described the global debt situation and made clear why a citizens’ audit of the debt was necessary. The question of public debt repayment is undeniably taboo, the activists said, adding that a citizens’ debt audit is a way to break the taboo. The audit enables an increasing proportion of the population to grasp the “ins and outs” of a country’s national debt process, they said. It involves an analysis of the borrowing policy followed by a given country’s authorities, they added. Dr Toussaint was the scientific coordinator of the Truth Committee on the Greek Public Debt set up by the President of the Hellenic Parliament. He was also a member of Ecuador’s Debt Audit Commission (Comisión para la Auditoria Integral de la DeudaPública -CAIC), created by Ecuadorian President Raphael Correa in 2007.