For a better efficiency of the budget preparation process of the Regions. In order to harmonize this approach at the national level, a joint team from MINDDEVEL and MINEPAT, the Ministry of Finance, accompanied the said Regions from April 6 to 15, 2021 in the elaboration of their budgets through advisory support and with a view to linking them to program-based budgeting.
The overall objective of this activity was to accompany the regional executives on the appropriation of the process of preparation, presentation, execution and control of the execution of regional budgets.
Regarding action training
Specifically, it was about :
With regard to accompaniment, in a practical way, the following objectives were aimed at:
1) to assist regional executives in preparing their budget documents to date: Budget, Annual Performance Project (APP) and others;
2) provide adequate support to regional executives in the appropriation of methodological tools for budget execution in program mode;
3) to enable the Regions to have good medium-term visibility (3 years) and to help them prepare budgetary framework documents.
In order to achieve these objectives, the methodology used was done in two phases. A preparatory phase which consisted essentially of documentary research, the development and validation of technical documents necessary for the mission, and the phase of the mission itself which was devoted to training and coaching on site to help the Regions to have budget documents for the 2021 fiscal year.
On Wednesday, 7 April 2021, the launch ceremony of the second phase of the Open Government in Cameroon was held at the Yaounde Hilton Hotel under the chairmanship of Professor PEKASSA NDAM, representative of the Prime Minister, Head of Government, Joseph DION NGUTE. This conference, jointly organized by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Ministry of Economy and Regional Development (MINEPAT) and National Governance Programme (NGP) with the support of the French Development Agency (AFD) also aimed at presenting to the various parties the methodology and working tools that will be adopted in the analysis for the roadmap of ‘Open Government in Cameroon’.
As a reminder, Open Government is a culture that promotes the principles of transparency, integrity, accountability and stakeholder participation for democracy, inclusive growth and efficient public services. Open Government is based on four core principles:
Historically, this mode of governance has been consecrated at the international level by the creation in September 2011 of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), which brings together 75 governments, including 5 French-speaking African countries. Cameroon’s membership is an initiative led since 2016 by the NGP in close collaboration with the Association for Integrated Development and Interactive Solidarity in Cameroon (ADISI), an NGO that works for development through the prism of Governance. To this end, Cameroon participated as a guest in the Abidjan seminar in 2018 for the implantation of best practices of Open Government. Between 2019 and 2020, the NGP undertook work to promote the principles of Open Government and a working group including public officials, parliamentarians, local elected officials and civil society was set up to advocate for Cameroon to join the Open Government Partnership. The work of the group resulted in a report that will serve as an input for the development of the roadmap with the technical support of OECD experts.
At the end of the presentation of the cooperation project, the OECD experts stressed that the roadmap resulting from this second phase will be aligned with the reforms underway in the country.
From 28 to 30 October 2020, a workshop was held in the town of Mbankomo to share and upgrade the actors of the steering and monitoring of sector budget support (SBS) of the 3rd C2D Debt Reduction and Development Contract. This workshop comes within the framework of the additional bilateral debt cancellation effort of France, through the Debt Reduction and Development Contracts (C2D), Cameroon and France signed, on 30 June 2016, a 3rd Contract worth €611M (≈ CFAF 400bn) covering the period 2017-2025. The contract sets aside €185.5m (≈ CFAF 121bn) for a sector budget support (SBS) envelope to be provided in the form of three-year grants, and intended to support Cameroon’s growth and sustainable development policies.
As indicated in the C2D Contract, the SBS are primarily aimed at financing social sector activities in the most fragile regions of Cameroon. They pursue both sector objectives, as set out in the national strategies, and objectives in terms of governance in public finance management and appropriation of the provisions of the renewed State financial regime. Finally, this support is also complementary to C2D project aid.
Under allocation agreement No. CCM 1577 01 U, signed on 11 March 2020, new sector budget support of CFAF 103.4 million (i.e. 67,825,953,800 CFA francs) has been set up for the 2020-2022 triennium. In line with the general guidelines for the SBS of the 3rd C2D, this operation aims to reduce inequalities in access to basic services by supporting a more effective and equitable budgetary policy. More specifically, this financing has the following objectives
The Ministry of Finance is responsible for the overall management and coordination of this operation. It is within this framework that the Committee in charge of monitoring the budgetary support of the 3rd C2D for the period 2020-2022 was set up by order N°00000673/MINFI of 15 June 2020. The composition of the said Committee was established on 21 September 2020. An Individual Consultant in charge of supporting the coordination and the technical and financial monitoring of the sector budgetary support of the 3rd C2D 2020-2022 has been recruited.
In order to enable all the actors involved in this process to understand the implementation procedures and to appropriate the philosophy, spirit, interest and stakes in accordance with the canons of the SBS procedures manual, and to edify the officials of the public bodies benefiting from support on the actions to be carried out, the Minister of Finance authorized the holding of a workshop for sharing and upgrading the actors.
To achieve this objective, eight presentations were made:
The first was made by Mrs. Sophie BOUMSONG, Head of the Budget Reform Division at the Ministry of Finance, who is also the Coordinator of the Technical Secretariat of the Committee in charge of monitoring budgetary support for the 3rd C2D. Her presentation focused on the background, objectives, challenges and principles of the 3rd C2D SBS.
The second presentation was made by Mrs. ELOMBAT Chantal, Director of the Industrial Upgrading and Modenization Office (BMN). This presentation focused on the general presentation of the BMN and the contribution of the ABS 3rd C2D to the achievement of the missions assigned to this entity.
Mr. NJOH Michelin and Mr. BILOUNGA Patrick, respectively Coordinator of the Management Unit of the Social Safety Net Programme (PFS) and Head of Information Systems within the said programme, developed the third theme of the workshop, which dealt with the general presentation of the PFS and the contribution of the SBA 3rd C2D to the achievement of its objectives.
Mr. DOKO EDJANE Mathieu Alain, Director of Financial Resources at the Ministry of Basic Education gave a presentation on the programmes “universalization of the primary cycle” and “governance and institutional support of the basic education sub-sector” supported by the SBS: state of play, expected sector results for the SBS 2020-2022, indicators and their level of achievement.
The health voucher mechanism set up at MINSANTE and supported by the SBS of the 3rd C2D was the subject of the fifth presentation of this workshop. This presentation was made by Dr OKALLA ABODO Raphaël Thérèse, Coordinator of the joint MINSANTE/AFD/KFW programme.
The sixth presentation was made by Mr. ETEME NDJOMO of the Technical Secretariat for the Implementation of the C2D (STADE C2D). It dealt with the terms and conditions for the disbursement of C2D funds: the conditions for the use of the C2D grant, the terms and conditions for disbursement, the specific commitments that Cameroon must implement throughout the programme, and the conditions precedent that must be lifted at each disbursement.
The organisation and functioning of the Monitoring Committee responsible for monitoring the 3rd C2D budgetary support for the period 2020-2022 was discussed in seventh place. This link in the workshop was presented by Mr BEKONO BEKONO Marc Désiré, Unit Head for Monitoring the Implementation of the Partnership for Reforms – DREF/DGB-MINFI.
The eighth communication of the workshop was developed by Mr. NTSAMA OYONO Christian, Technical Assistant in charge of coordination, technical and financial monitoring of the sector budget support of the 3rd C2D 2020-2022. This last communication of the workshop focused on reporting tools and methods to achieve the objectives assigned to each programme.
At the end of this workshop, the initial objectives of which were largely achieved, all the actors in charge of steering and implementing the sector budget support of the 3rd C2D 2020-2022 made a firm commitment to contribute and ensure the success of this operation./-
The President of the Republic of Cameroon, His Excellency Mr. Paul Biya promulgated on December 11, 2018, after the adoption of the bill in the National Assembly and the Senate, Cameroon’s budget law for the 2019 fiscal year. The State budget amounts to 4850.5 billion CFA francs and knows an increase of 161 billion CFA francs compared to the 2018 fiscal year.
Law N0. 2018/011 of 11 July 2018 on the Code of Transparency and Good Governance in the Management of Public Finances in Cameroon (CTGB) enjoins the administration to take all necessary measures to publish information on public finances. To this end, Sect. 47 (3) of the Code specifies that “a special instrument, adopted before the beginning of the budgetary year, shall publish the timetable for the dissemination of information”.
It should be noted that the publication calendar of public finance statistics commits each government department to participate in budget transparency as advocated by the CTGG and the various international agencies evaluating Cameroon’s public finance management system.
In application of this legal requirement, the present calendar, like the previous ones, has been drawn up with the contribution and collaboration of certain stakeholders in the budgetary process and in the Government’s economic policy.
The Minister of Finance, Mr Louis Paul Motaze, has just signed an important instrument: Service memo on the closure of commitments and payment authorizations for the budget year 2020. In this memo issued on 5 November, MINFI notifies financial controllers and public accountants that the dates for stopping commitment, authorisation and treasury operations on the State budget and other public entities, for the 2020 financial year is set as follows:
Through this administrative instrument, MINFI enjoins financial controllers and public accountants to sensitize authorizing officers so that they take all necessary measures to ensure compliance with this regulatory measure. This note aims at ensuring greater rationality in the execution of public budgets.
As a reminder, this note comes within the scope of the 2020 financial year operations, as provided for by the provisions of Law No. 2018/012 of 11 July 2018 relating to the Fiscal Regime of the State in its Section 62 (2).
The President of the Republic of Cameroon, His Excellency Paul Biya promulgated on December 11, 2018, after the adoption of the bill in the National Assembly and Senate, the finance law of Cameroon for the financial year 2019. The state budget stands at CFAF 4850.5 billion and has an increase of CFAF 161 billion compared to the 2018 financial year.
On 28 December, Finance Minister Louis Paul Motaze signed the Circular of Instruction on the execution of finance laws, monitoring and control of the execution of the budget of the State and other public entities for the financial year 2019.
A true compass for the monitoring and control of budget execution for the financial year 2019, this circular focuses on the measures that must effectively contribute to the satisfactory implementation of the State’s budgetary policy. These are based on two pillars, namely the axes of the budgetary policy and the modalities, procedures and tools for the execution of public budgets for the financial year 2019.
To this end, the Government’s policy will focus on quality and rigour in the management of the budget and other public entities. This year will focus on strengthening the achievements in the economic and social fields, as well as in the areas of governance and performance. Government policy will also focus on consolidating the gains made in the area of decentralisation. To this end, the circular calls for the continued implementation of the institutional and structural reforms under way, speeding up the pace of execution of major structural projects and ensuring the completion of the various infrastructure projects. The ongoing consolidation and control of public finances should be pursued through improved planning and budgetary transparency, a substantial improvement in the quality of public expenditure and the strengthening of budget revenue collection.
It should be recalled that the implementation of the Economic and Financial Programme concluded with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) since June 2017 is continuing in a generally satisfactory manner. The third review received a favourable opinion from the Fund’s Executive Board on 17 December.