​Reply to Pape Malick Ndour, former Minister of Youth under President Macky Sall (Par HADY TRAORE) 

  I was surprised, if not shocked, to read the remarks of Pape Malick Ndour criticizing the Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko for his decision to centralize the validation of budgetary expenditures. Your accusations, tinged with a certain nostalgia for an outdated mode of management, attempt to make us believe that this approach goes against the principles of budgetary stability and the UEMOA directives. But, to think about it, these criticisms lack depth. How can one oppose a reform that aims to rationalize public spending and align it with the country’s real priorities? Let us take a moment to demonstrate why this centralisation is not only necessary, but salutary for a Senegal in full transformation. The world in which we live today requires flexibility and responsiveness. Unforeseen crises, whether economic, climatic or health, have become commonplace. The COVID-19 pandemic, for example, has exposed the limits of the model you are defending. In 2020, faced with the global health emergency, President Macky Sall himself had to vote in emergency des lois dérogatoires to modify a budget that was nevertheless already voted and in execution.