Ernest Elema Bokandjo is a senior administrative officer in
Cameroon (called in French Administrateur
Civil Principal). But this gentleman has been serving now for seven years as
the Southwest Regional Controller of Finance.
Mr.Elema Bokandjo sat down in his Buea office for an
exclusive interview with RECORDER Editor,
Christopher Ambe.
In the following interview, the Financial Controller talks
about the execution of public investment budget in the Southwest Region, the
functions of the financial controllers and how they help in checking corruption.
Mr.Elema Bokandjo also discloses the findings of the alleged purchase by CEFAM
of 4 computers for 25 million FCFA, and more. Read on.
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| Ernest Elema Bokandjo /RECORDER Cmr/ |
Mr. Financial Controller, several weeks ago the financial year was
launched. What is your appreciation of this year’s state budget?
Well the 2012 state budget has been launched throughout the
national territory. Here in the Southwest Region things are moving slowly but
surely. The authorizing officer s are gradually collecting their credit cards
and preparing their accreditation for the Governor to sign them. The computer
software is already set and we are ready to receive any case of expenditure by
any authorizing officer. And in the divisions, since there is no software,
things are moving faster and people are already spending the 201 budget.
How different is the 2012 state budget from last year’s own?
The two budgets are not so different at our level. At the
level of Yaounde, they moved from a resource –based budget to a program-based
budget. It has started this year. Most of the ministries presented their
budgets in the format of program-based budget.
But at the regional level we are still getting acquainted
with the mechanism. Some training exercises will be carried out to permit all
users of the state budget to get used to the new format {the program-based
budgeting)
The resource-based budget is a system where the services are
identified; they have an organigramme. And the functioning of that organigramme
is estimated at random, without any special focus on the attainment of any
objective. The program –based budget is one which every ministry has to select
its priorities and set up targets – and then the means to achieve those targets
are estimated and allocated. Then the judgment at the end is to know how far
the program has been achieved; how much of the target has been attained. The
former approach was just letting the ball roll, keeping the system alive. But
today it is letting the system produce its own results in the field.
You have been Southwest Regional Financial Controller for seven years.
How would you appreciate the execution of the public investment budget in the
Region, conscious of the fact that the financial controllers are supposed to be
instrumental in the execution of public investment projects?
Yes for seven years I have been working
here in this service that authorizes payment for work done. So far what I can
say is that we have been doing our best. Perfection is not a thing of this
world. We have always done our best to ensure that projects earmarked for this
region are properly executed; we have also done and still do our best to ensure
that each Franc allocated for the region is used for the interest of the
region.
But I must say it has not been easy because sometimes some
regulations are not strictly followed to let things go the right way. As one
prominent civil servant said, “The laws are made for people and not the people
for laws. So when we have to do some work and we encounter little problems with
the implementation of the laws, we can bend the law but not break it so to
achieve a set objective.
What have you identified as the major causes of slow execution of the
public investment budget in the southwest region, because as I understand the
overall execution has never attained 100%?
Well, the major causes of slow execution of public investment
projects are natural. The climate of the region and the enclave nature of
certain localities are a huge hindrance to the smooth execution of public
investment budget in the Southwest Region. You know that the Southwest has the
longest rainy season-close to seven months sometimes like 2011.The Region does
not have roads! And you would realize that within a year (12 months), we have
three or four months to reach some of these enclave places to get work done.
Added to that, the length of time for the award of contract
is long and the procedure complex. I know this is intended to ensure
transparency and accountability and so on. But it is so long that sometimes,
from programming to launching of the first project it can take three to four
months. And these three to four months fall during the period that we have sun
in all the areas of the Region. For example, January, February and March are
the only months when anything can be possible; but then even during this period
the procedures for putting in place the mechanisms are still going on. The
proper execution of projects starts around March, when we are already at the
beginning of the rainy season.
Another problem is that the engineers are very few for so
many projects. We have close to 5000 projects in this region but we don’t have
up to ten (10) engineers to follow-up the projects. But now-luckily, the new
ministerial circular has extended the role of engineers to many other
ministries. That means we will now have more experts to examine the execution
of projects.
But since I came here the execution has always been above 90
%, which is very good when compared to other regions of the country. The
Southwest has always ranked between first and fourth positions.
What is the Public Investment Budget for the Southwest Region this
year?
Well, if we talk about
the credits that have to be controlled by our services here-Regional and Divisional
Controls, we received Seven billion, Forty-nine million, Five hundred &
ninety-six thousand Francs for projects.
But the Region, according to the Log Book, has received
close to 23 billion Francs for projects. Most of our projects are controlled by
the Central Services. And you have here big projects like national standard
hotel in Buea that will consume close to three billion francs; you have the Loum-Kumba
road that will take close to 2.5 billion Francs. There are several other
projects here to be controlled at the level of Yaounde.
Would you say this year’s
allocated Investment budget for the Southwest is significant enough to enhance infrastructural
development in the Region?
I think there is a great improvement in the public
investment budget of the region compared to last year. Last year we had 6.6
billion Francs for credits allocated to us here. But the region had a total of
19 billion francs for projects executed in the region-because some were
controlled from Yaounde.
I think the budget when executed properly will create an
impact. Don’t forget that the Head of State will visit the region this year.
And you know when the head of state is visiting he carries along other big projects.
Such projects when executed will greatly give the region a facelift. In short,
many good things will happen this year in the region.
What really are the functions of the Financial Controller, whom you are?
The Financial controller is a technician put at the regional
and divisional levels for the follow-up of the execution of the state budget in
the region. We ensure the implementation
of rules and regulations in the management of state funds. In that light, we are the ones to check all
expenditures engaged by the authorizing officers and we are the ones
authorizing payment when in the course of checking we realize that everything
is Ok….To deal with the state you need to be in order; you need to fulfill all certain
l requirements- expected of you by the State. We control to ensure that all the
requirements are fulfilled. We serve as advisers to all authorizing officers on
matters that concern the management of public funds. You know the authorizing
officers are of different fields. You have for example doctors, teachers, and engineers,
who have never received training on the management of state funds. So we are
there to help them.
We also serve as advisers to the Governor or SDO’s when they
have to sign anything that has to do with the management of state funds or
which has financial incidence. We have to check and visa to ensure the text is
not violating regulations in force.
We are also in charge of general affairs. For example, when
a civil servant dies we arrange for the coffin; when he is sick we channel the
files for reimbursement of medical
expenditure ; normally we are supposed to deal with telephone, electricity and
water bills for all state services and civil servants who have such allowances;
we are in charge of salary and pension matters; increments and advantages of
all civil servants who are performing their duties…
One would have thought that a financial controller should be a
financial expert by training. But when I look at your name tag on your table I
see Mr. Ernest Elema Bokandjo,Administrateur Civil Principal(i.e. Senior
Administrative Officer) and your
Predecessor was equally a senior administrative officer. What explanation do
you have for this?
I don’t think that there is a special corps for budget. In
the Ministry of Finance, we have a corps for taxation, for treasury, for
customs, for stores accounting but there is no corps for budget control.
We have an in-house training that we under go to qualify as
financial controllers to perform our duties. We have software that we are using
to be able to perform our duties. We have the price list in the soft ware that
we use to cross check prices of things.
Corruption is still high in the public service. How do financial
controllers help in the fight against corruption?
You know corruption is a wide field. When you talk of it,
there are many malpractices that can be grouped to give what we call
corruption. In our area by checking the effectiveness of expenditures, by
checking the respect of official prices, by checking whether instructions,
rules and regulations are respected; registering their operations .By so doing,
I think we are contributing to the fight against corruption. We ensure that our
workers respect the ethics of our corps and are punctual at their job side.
As controllers you control others. Are you also controlled?
I should say that we are the most controlled .We are controlled through
our monthly and quarterly reports.Hierachy reads and scrutinizes our
reports and it is noticed that something is inappropriate about any of our reports,
an independent control brigade is sent
to control us. We have a control brigade here that controls the regional and divisional
financial controllers. You may want to know that I was recently queried by the
Control brigade, when they noticed something wrong in my management. We are
strictly controlled even from within.
Do you have any appeal to contractors and other users of your Service?
My appeal is to the authorizing officers. They should come
and withdraw their credits and prepare their accreditation papers so that we
send them to the Governor for signature. I want to tell them that we are very
ready for all operations. Our system is ready and the software upgrade for
better performance. Everything is ready for 2012 operations.
Before I forget, I learned that you headed the five-man commission that
was sent to CEFAM Buea to probe the claim by the institution that it bought
four computers for 25 million francs. What are your findings?
I am very happy for this question because it is not good for
unverified information to be made public about an institution such as CEFAM.And
it is not good that wrong impressions are given about things that happen in
institutions.
The problem about the CEFAM computer problem is a question
of the qualification of workers and the question of the harmonization of the
presentation of information that gave the wrong impression of what happened in
CEFAM.
CEFAM had to make a presentation about its public investment
budget the way the participatory follow-up Committee wants. And a small table
was given to that institution, and the people who were to fill that table did
it in a deceitful manner. The line of 25 million bought six computers. The
highest in price was 1.3 million Francs, there were others that cost 600 and
something Francs.That same line of 25
million catered for some computer
accessories-such as printers, the back-up , soft wares and anti-viruses.
In short, many things were purchased in that same line. All
the computers did not take up to Seven million Francs of the 25 million Francs.
It is just that the person who filled it put the percentage of realization at
100%.He put four computers against for 25 million Francs, giving the
impression four computers were bought
for 25 million Francs. We went round and
saw the computers and its accessories-printers, photocopy machines were there.
So who then is to blame for the CEFAM mix-up?
Neither the press that reported about the setting up of a
commission to investigate the CEFAM computer purchase, nor the public
Investment Follow-up Committee. I think the blame should go to the network
within CEFAM that presented the information wrongly.
We noticed that all the presentations of the public
investment projects of other institutions were signed, but that of CEFAM was
not even signed .This is because inexperienced workers prepared the report.
Are you saying that CEFAM has no case?
Yes, from what we saw. But you know there is no perfect
management anywhere. Wherever a control team goes, it always finds out that
certain things were not properly done.
We noticed some problems about the prices. Since they don’t
have the official price list and the appropriate software, they had problem
about prices. But we advised them on what to do and where (Delegation of
Commerce) to get the price list to guide their bills.
First Published in The Recorder Newspaper, Cameroon, of February
17, 2012
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