The Minister of Finance, Louis Paul Motaze, has invited all those involved in the execution of the budget to be aware of their responsibilities in the attainment of Cameroon’s development objectives.
In their capacity as the starting point for the execution of public expenditure, authorising officers, contracting authorities and delegated contracting authorities are responsible for the timely commencement of invitation to tender procedures, notably the preparation of consultation documents, the launching and awarding of contracts and the commitment of related expenditure. They are also in charge of monitoring the execution of works or services until their completion. To this end, Minfi urged them to proceed from January 23, 2023, to the launch of procedures for all contracts that are within their competence, so as to give economic operators the opportunity to bid and perform the said services within the time limits and in accordance with the predefined specifications.
They were reminded of their strategic position as partners without whom budget execution could not be achieved. ” you are the main contributors to the State budget, and the level of tax revenue realisation depends essentially on your adherence to the Government’s fiscal policy, and your willingness to take part in its implementation. Also, facilitation measures are included in the Republic’s finance laws in order to improve your relationship with the tax administration. You also act as service providers and, as such, you are responsible for the proper execution of the work and services entrusted to you by the project owners. Your professionalism, I want to say your economic patriotism is the foundation on which the economic and social development of the Region” the Minister of Finance hammered.
To the devolved services of the Ministries in charge of Finance, the Economy and Public Procurement, Louis Paul Motaze reminded them that they are at the heart of the budgetary and financial life of the Region. Consequently, they are the custodians of the management rules, the guarantors of the respect of procedures and the accompaniment of the various actors. To this end, he emphasised that the efficient execution of the budget depends to a large extent on their mastery of the various public management tools and the speed with which they process the files submitted to them. While urging them to put in place all the necessary mechanisms to facilitate the processing of files, Minfi invited them to respect the ethical and deontological rules required in the exercise of their respective functions. Furthermore, he urged them to be more than in the past, true advisors to taxpayers and users of public services. He also urged them to be relays of awareness, training and explanation of the new measures included in the 2023 finance law in order to avoid any ambiguity that could lead to diverse interpretations and be detrimental to the relationship of trust they have built so far.
The local elected officials were first congratulated by the minister before being reminded about the actions to be improved upon, such as the principle of the single treasury account. “I would like to seize the opportunity offered to me here to congratulate you on the sacrifices made by everyone for the successful implementation of decentralisation. (…) It is important to recall that decentralised local authorities do not escape the principle of the single treasury account and its main corollary, the pooling of resources. This pooling of resources, as you must know, is consubstantial with the notion of the Republic and is imposed on all its branches. I even want to say that the basis of the notion of a single account lies in the need for our country, whose administrative organisation is unitary although decentralised, to give all its communities the same opportunities in terms of availability of resources. I would therefore like to specify that the resources meant for the RLAs are made available according to the collection of State revenues, but they are meant to be mobilised to pay for expenses incurred, realised, liquidated and ordered and are not meant to be hoarded in accounts opened in commercial banks. “
Louis Paul Motaze invited them to mobilise their energies to accelerate the implementation of projects retained in their respective budgets by showing more realism in the voting of future budgets, taking into account the level of realisation of previous budgets and the absorption capacity of the credits made available to them, so as not to trigger a spiral of indebtedness detrimental to public finances.
To this end, the financial controllers and municipal revenue collectors were urged to continue to show collaboration and professionalism for a better accompaniment of the regional andlocal authorities.
“The choice of the Littoral Region to host this important event in the budgetary life of our country is not insignificant. As the economic pillar of the country, this region has every year the heavy responsibility of carrying the budget of the State by the level of resources it mobilizes. This year, as you have certainly noticed, the level of demand will be even greater in view of the many challenges we face. We will come back to this. It therefore seemed natural to start the awareness campaign with the citizens of the Littoral, whose dynamism and vivacity we know, and with their administrative authorities, whose firmness and determination are no longer in need of demonstration.
This is an opportunity for me to express my gratitude to the Governor of the Littoral Region, the President of the Littoral Regional Executive, the Mayor of the City of Douala, their collaborators, as well as to the noble and hospitable populations of the entire Region, for the warm welcome extended to me and the delegation accompanying me since our arrival in this beautiful city.
Allow me also to salute the massive and very reassuring presence at this meeting of all the actors in the execution of the Region’s budget. Ladies and gentlemen, administrative authorities, local elected officials, elites and economic operators, your presence here is a testimony to the interest you take in the effective and efficient implementation of public administration budgets, which is a guarantee of harmonious economic and social development of the whole country in general, and of the Littoral Region in particular (…)
In order to support the implementation of these public policies, the overall budget for the 2023 financial year is CFAF 6,345.1 billion, as against CFAF 6,080.4 billion in 2022, an increase of 264.7 billion in absolute terms and 4.4% in relative terms.
The Littoral Region, in its two components, Littoral 1 and Littoral 2, takes a large share of this, with an envelope of almost CFAF 100 billion comprising centrally managed and deconcentrated management allocations. This envelope is dedicated to the continuation and completion of various second-generation projects in the health, agriculture and infrastructure sectors, with a view to improving the living conditions of the region’s populations. These various allocations are proof of the public authorities’ desire to complete the major projects initiated in the region under the best possible conditions and to start new ones, in accordance with the objectives of the NDS30. These include:
To name a few.” Louis Paul Motaze
It is, in plain English, the simplified version of the finance law for the year 2023. Designed for the general public, in a language devoid of any technicality in French and English, the document is available and downloadable on the website of the Directorate General of Budget. This publication highlights the data and information useful for determining the State budget, the resources and expenses, as well as certain expenditures that are usually the object of particular interest on the part of the population.
The Citizen Budget 2023 is structured around: 1) the economic hypotheses used to draw up the budget; 2) the budgetary process; 3) revenue collection; 4) allocation and expenditure priorities; 5) new measures; 6) major investment projects; 7) decentralization; and 8) gender budgeting.
“As part of the implementation of public finance management reforms, the government has made a commitment to base public policy management on principles of transparency, performance and strengthening the quality of public services,” explains the Minister of Finance, Louis PAUL MOTAZE, in the foreword to this 48-page pamphlet.
Since 2019, the Government has made a commitment to publish the citizen budget every year. This publication makes it possible to guarantee, to a non-initiated public, (to citizens), access to budgetary information enshrined in the provisions of Law N°2018/011 of 11 July 2018 on the Code of transparency and good governance in the management of public finances in Cameroon.
In general, in its philosophy and in line with circular (N°001 of 23 August 2022) relating to the preparation of the State Budget for the fiscal year 2023, the State budget is drawn up to enable the implementation of the Government’s National Development Strategy 2020-2030 (NDS30) to continue. This involves improving the living conditions of the population, the proper functioning of state services, the reduction of inequalities between men and women (gender issues), as well as the improvement of the business environment, thus enabling the private sector to develop and create jobs.
DREF/COM
In a circular signed on 30 December 2022, the Minister of Finance (MINFI), Mr. Louis PAUL MOTAZE, gave the main guidelines on the execution of the finance law for the 2023 budgetary year.
At the outset, MINFI recalls the context in which the 2023 budget law is being implemented. Indeed, at the national level, the priority is to continue the implementation of the National Development Strategy 2020-2030 (NDS30) and the Economic and Financial Programme concluded with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in July 2021. In addition, attention will be paid to the finalization and commissioning of the remaining major first-generation projects and the continued preparation of second-generation projects. This is without forgetting the fragility of social cohesion, which must be consolidated through the decentralization process, the pursuit of the import-substitution policy and the construction of regions affected by the security crises, particularly those of the North West, South West and Far North.
After this reminder of the national context, the country is experiencing the negative externalities of the international turmoil, which is having a strong impact on its budget execution. These include the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, which leads to constant fluctuations in the price of oil and shocks to energy and food prices, “thus accentuating pressure on public finances’’.
In this respect, “the 2023 budget law aims at reducing the budget deficit by 0.8 percentage points, from 1.9% of GDP in 2022 to 1.1% in 2023. In this perspective, the objective will be to maintain the debt rate at 45% of GDP for the 2021-2023 period, below the threshold of 70% of GDP set by the CEMAC,” MINFI said. To achieve this, coherence between the pace of expenditure and revenue collection should be ensured through planning and anticipation of expenditure.
The Minister of Finance is therefore calling on all public administration officials, the managers of Public Enterprises and Establishments (EEP), the Heads of Regional and Local Authorities (RLA), the Managers of projects and programs and those ranking as such, and the officials in charge of Control bodies, to “mobilize collaborators under their authority in view of the stakes, challenges and objectives inherent in the efficient and harmonious execution of public budgets on the account of the 2023 fiscal year”.
DOWNLOAD THE CIRCULAR IN ENGLISH
DREF/COM
On 27 December 2022, the President of the Republic, His Excellency Paul Biya, promulgated the Settlement Law of the Republic of Cameroon for the year 2021.
Indeed, the settlement law is the law of recognition of the last executed finance law.
Consult the settlement law 2021
On Tuesday 27 December 2022, the President of the Republic, His Excellency Paul Biya promulgated Cameroon’s finance law for the year 2023. The State budget for the year 2023 in resources and uses at 6345,100,000,000 billion CFA francs of which 6274,800,000,000 CFA francs for the general budget and 70,300,000,000 CFA francs for the special accounts.
Consult the 2023 finance law here for more details
A three-day workshop to share experiences and best practices of the network of management control coordinators has begun today the 6th of December 2022, in Yaounde at SUITA hotel Bastos.
Mr. ONDOA Frederic, Head of the Training and Information Systems Unit at the Division of Budget Reforms in the Ministry of Finance, presided at the opening ceremony in the presence of thirty eight (38) management control coordinators from various Ministries, participants from the Division of Budget Reforms as well as the GIZ under the Support Programme for the Modernisation of Public Finances (PAMFIP). He noted in his opening remarks the importance of management control especially as Cameroon is celebrating a decade of the Program-Budget. He equally appreciated the initiative of GIZ through PAMFIP for their constant support especially in capacity building of performance actors in the Budget chain.
The aim of this workshop is to improve management control through exchanges and sharing experiences on best practices between management control coordinators.
Specifically, discussions for today centered on the conceptual framework and tools of management control in Cameroon’s Public Administration, the strategy of capitalisation of experiences and knowledge management in the context of mobility, revisiting the fundamentals of result-based management as well as gender sensitive budgeting.
Proposals made amongst others were to make provision for management control in the organisational charts (organinigramme) of ministries and the fact that there is a difference between management dialogue and coordination meetings.
The workshop ends on Thursday the 8th of December 2022.
Budget execution during the first half of 2022 is characterized by a satisfactory level of mobilization of budgetary resources. Established at 2 750.7 billion CFAF, budgetary resources represent 46.0% of the annual estimate of 5 977.7 billion CFAF.
By component, oil revenue represents 49.9% of the annual estimate LFR and non-oil revenue was 49.8%, of which 50.9% was tax revenue and 32% was non-tax revenue.
Mobilized budgetary resources increased to 630.5 billion as compared to 2 120.0 billion that was mobilized during the first half of 2021, mainly due to an increase in internal revenue.
Concerning budgetary charges, they increased to 50.2 billion as compared to that at the end of June 2021 established at 2 446.0 billion due to an increase in debt services leading to a decrease in current expenditure (excluding interests) and expenditure on investments.
This resulted to a surplus of the global budgetary balance of 122.7 billion, against a deficit of 200.7 billion at the first half 2021. The primary balance is surplus by 200.7 billion against a deficit of 130.6 billion, a year after.
However, the execution of the 2022 budget remains marred by derogatory procedures, and shortcomings in the execution of the public investment budget.
Efforts to raise resources, especially those for financing, to improve the consumption of investment appropriations and a mastery of operational charges should continue in the second half of 2022, in order to guarantee the achievement of the objectives of the economic and financial program and to meet the growing social and security needs. At the same time, continued efforts of all national actors in the budget execution chain and development partners will permit the Government to better implement main actions provided in the Amending Finance Law of 2022.
In an ordinance signed on 7 June 2021, the President of the Republic, Paul Biya increases the State budget for the year 2021 by CFAF 615.2 billion or 12.64%. This ordinance amends and supplements certain provisions of Law No. 2020/018 of 17 December 2020 to lay down the finance law of the Republic of Cameroon for the year 2021.
In this new ordinance, 11 provisions have been amended and supplemented while two new sections have been inserted. It appears from this act of the President of the Republic that the budget for the year 2021 in Cameroon is revised upwards by 615.2 billion CFA francs. In fact, in section 40 of the initial finance law, the State budget for the year 2021 was balanced in resources and uses at CFAF 4865.2 billion, of which CFAF 4670 billion for the general budget and CFAF 195.2 billion for the appropriation accounts. With the ordinance of 7 June, this budget increases to CFAF 5 480.4 billion (CFAF 5 235.2 billion for the general budget and CFAF 245.2 billion for the special accounts).
With regard to the special appropriation accounts, Chapter 4 on the appropriation of revenue in its new section 31 revalorizes this envelope. It is thus indicated that
“the ceiling of resources intended to supply the National Solidarity Fund for the fight against the Coronavirus and its economic and social impact is set at CFAF two hundred billion 200,000,000,000) for the year 2021”.
Ordinance 7 June 2021
In the initial finance law, the ceiling of resources intended to supply this fund during this financial year was CFAF 180 billion. The overall revenue thus increases from CFAF 3456.6 billion in the initial budget to 3530.8 billion in the amended law, an increase of 74.2 billion.
With regard to stamp duty rates, the stamp duty on national passports (issuance, renewal and extension) is set at CFAF 110 000 as from 1 July 2021. This stamp duty was set at CFAF 75,000 in the initial finance law.
This new ordinance comes after the one of 26 May last, which allows the State to raise funds on the international financial market.
On Tuesday 15 June 2021, the Yaounde Hilton Hotel opened its doors to participants in the third management dialogue of Programme 274 “State Budget Management”, for the 2021 budgetary year. On the agenda, the review of the activities of the Global Plan of Public Finance Management Reforms (PGRGFP) included in the Annual Work Plan (AWP) 2021, and the evaluation of the implementation level of the recommendations of the Head of this programme, resulting from previous management dialogues.
Under the leadership of the Director General of the Budget, Mr Cyrill EDOU ALO’O, who is also in charge of the said Programme, the session brought together all the stakeholders who work for its performance. The meeting was attended by all the action managers, the Management Controller accompanied by his network of referents, and the managers of the 274 programme up to the rank of Sub-Director.
After welcoming all the participants, the objectives of the management dialogue were the focus of the programme manager’s opening remarks. These were regular monitoring of the performance of Programme 274, for which the annual mission letters with the 2021 AWP were signed at the beginning of the year. In addition, the respect of the directives defined by the Minister of Finance for the year 2021 so that the activities included in the AWP are carried out properly, which is a guarantee of performance. Talking about the activities of the PGRGFP, he specified that their implementation concerned only those included in the AWP 2021 for Programme 274.
Implementation level of previous recommendations
At the beginning of this discussion, the Chairman of the meeting gave the floor to the Management Controller, Mr MBIDA Joachim, to read the draft validation of the agenda. After the validation of the latter by the audience, the floor was once again given to him for the presentation of the level of implementation of the recommendations from the previous management dialogues. The presentation of the said recommendations revealed certain grey areas in the implementation of certain actions, which led the DGB to call on the managers of the actions concerned to shed more light on them, giving rise to exchanges between the stakeholders.
Taking the floor to respond to a question, Mrs Goma Flore, Sub-Director of General Affairs, was asked to continue with the presentation of the Internal Control Implementation Plan within Programme 274.
Internal Control Implementation Plan within Programme 274
In this section, the plan for implementing internal control within the programme was submitted for validation. This plan, which has been validated and will be implemented until 2022, will consist, among other things, of drawing up the code of ethics and conduct for staff, drawing up a risk map, defining the function of “risk manager” and developing an internal reporting system.
Following Ms Goma, the Programme Manager once again gave the floor to the Management Controller to continue the presentation of the level of implementation of the recommendations, and to move on to the level of implementation of the Global Plan activities, which will also be interspersed with interactions between the participants.
Evaluation mission of the Global Plan on Public Finance Reform
The Director General of the Budget, in charge of the Programme 274, gave the floor to Mrs. Sophie BOUMSONG, Head of the Budget Reform Division to brief the last evaluation mission of the PGRFP for the three-year period 2019-2021. The Head of Division highlighted the following activities: the operationalization of the State’s budget nomenclature, development of budget accounting, implementation of internal budgetary control and implementation of the commitment plan.
Following this, the Head of Programme 274 took the floor to urge his staff to be more zealous in the accomplishment of their tasks, and to put in place a wider division of labour, in order to effectively and efficiently achieve the objectives that are incumbent on them. In the same vein, he insisted on the fact that the Heads of Action should permanently develop a participative managerial approach at the level of human resources with the aim of detecting talents but also of identifying the less capable staff in order to help them to upgrade. He also announced that a training centre would be set up in the near future within the programme 274.
Once all the items on the agenda had been covered, Mr Cyrill EDOU ALO’O, Director General of the Budget, in charge of the 274 programme, gave the floor once again to the Sub-Director of General Affairs for other matters. In this part, there was only one item on the agenda: ovations for some staff of the Programme 274, including Mr Cyrill EDOU ALO’O, Director General of the Budget. They were commended by the Minister of Finance on 12 June, receiving honorary distinctions and letters of recognition.
Following all this, the working session was closed by its chairman to the rhythm of applause, the result of a working meeting that certainly left no one unmoved.