Official launch of the 3rd PEFA evaluation in Cameroon

The Minister of Finance, His Excellency Louis Paul MOTAZE, has just officially launched the 3rd evaluation of Cameroon’s public financial management system according to the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) methodology. The ceremony was attended by the main administrations involved in this evaluation, Civil Society as well as Technical and Financial Partners.

In setting the scene for this activity, the Minister of Finance (MINFI) recalled the importance of this evaluation in a context where Cameroon is truly committed to modernising its public finance management system.  “This review aims at reexamining our public finance management system in depth. It gives us, so to speak, the opportunity to assess the impact of the reforms undertaken over the past five years,” he said.

Taking the floor in his turn, Mr. Patrick ILLING, Representative of the Ambassador, Head of the European Union Delegation (DUE) and Lead TFP, also insisted on the merits of this review. “This repetitive evaluation is therefore important because it will provide a comparative and objective analysis on the impacts and sustainability of all the reform works since 2017, as well as an analysis on the persistent weaknesses in the performance of Cameroon’s public finance management system.

Innovation: gender and climate 

Given the new challenges facing states, the PEFA 2023 assessment innovates with two additional modules on climate and gender. “By integrating the climate-sensitive public finance management framework, the review will determine the extent to which Cameroon’s PFM system is capable of supporting and promoting the implementation of government policies relating to climate change** and make adjustments to improve the country’s performance in this area,” MINFI said.

In addition, and with regard to the complementary framework on gender, Louis Paul MOTAZE specified that this review will focus, in addition to the classic questions, on the progress and challenges of the public finance system in Cameroon with regard to the operationalisation of gender budgeting in order to promote gender equality; all of which will make it possible to appreciate the efforts already made by Cameroon as well as the challenges to be taken up in terms of gender.

Method and perspective

After a sensitisation on the 31 PEFA indicators and several exchanges and consultations at a distance, the field mission of five experts started on 27 February and led to a collection of data, which resulted in a provisional report, the object of the work of this Tuesday 07 March 2023 at the Hilton Hotel in Yaoundé. More precisely, it was a question of presenting the provisional scores established on the basis of the information already collected and discussing them in relation to the results of the 2017 PEFA evaluation. In any case, “the official launch of the third review of the public finance management system according to the PEFA methodology was aimed at bringing together Cameroonian authorities to present the provisional picture of the PFM system with a view to clarifying it, if need be, as well as to sensitize stakeholders on the importance of aligning with international standards in public finance,” said Mrs. Sophie BOUMSONG, Head of the Budget Reform Division at the Directorate General of Budget (DGB).

On the methodological level, unlike previous editions, the PEFA 2023 review is conducted using an approach combining a remote inter-action and a field mission. This approach makes it possible to improve data collection, especially for data that can be captured and analysed off-site, while the field mission focuses mainly on possible shortcomings and on confirming the data.

Specifically, the assessment focuses on the state of public finances around the three main objectives of budgetary discipline, strategic resource allocation and efficient delivery of public services. The 2023 PEFA will map the national public finance management system on the basis of some thirty performance indicators that will serve as a basis for assessing the impact of future reforms.

DREF/COM