Personnel of the state-run petroleum company say much has changed since the coming of the new General Manager.
By Mbeh Moses Eben in Yaounde
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| Elung Paul Che, “la force tranquille” at CSPH |
When we visited the beautiful headquarters of the CSPH in down town Yaounde to catch-up with the GM and find out how he feels after spending his first year at the very strategic and exalting position, we unfortunately did not meet him on sit. We were told that the GM had accompanied the Prime Minister to London, for the Cameroon-UK Business Forum that took place last week. Even though, our interlocutor advised us not to bother to come back, saying the GM would not answer any questions on issues concerning his job. “Our boss does not fancy talking to the press; he is not a friend of the microphone,” he observed, concluding that even if the GM ever received us he could talk on other things and not about CSPH.
However, some workers of CSPH who accepted to talk to us though on condition that they would not be named in our report observed that much has changed at the CSPH, since the coming of the new GM.
“The laxity that used to reign is now a thing of the past; punctuality is the order of the day; workers no longer go out of the gate and come in they way they like as was the case in the past; work starts at 8.00 a.m. prompt and if you are not there at this time you are considered absent,” said one of the workers, who remarked that the GM himself comes to office before 8.00 a.m. every day, even during weekends and this only spurs the entire personnel to do the same.
Some security guards posted at strategic places at the company’s headquarters also confirmed that laxity and lateness is no longer tolerated at the there any more.
“We have received very firm instruction not to open the gate for workers after 8.00 a.m.; and we respect this instruction strictly, you know the new GM is a no-nonsense man,” said a security guard, who observed that today it is punctuality, work and not laxity that reigns at the CSPH. “In fact, the new GM has installed a new spirit of hard work at CSPH,” added the guard, who concluded that “It is a completely different working environment since the coming of the new GM”.
Another worker who also spoke to us said apart from the emphasis on punctuality and assiduity at work, the new GM has made the working environment more conducive.
“We are provided with everything that facilitates our work; so you have just no reason to complain…. All workers are provided with call credits for their telephones, access to the GM is now very easy, files are sent urgently to the services concerned and this makes for faster treatment; in fact every worker must do their job and correctly,” said the worker, who also noted that today all financial transactions at CSPH are done only by bank transfers and not through cheques as was the case before.
It should be recalled that when Mr. Elung Paul was appointed by president Paul Biya on 26 April 2013, his immediate reaction to this newspaper was thus: “I do not take my appointment as a triumph; rather, I take it with all humility….My attention is now focused on how to quickly grasp my work prescriptions and approach my work with the best attitude possible. You know I must do everything to meet the expectations of the president of the republic who placed his high confidence and trust in me, and the public that I am called upon to serve.”
One year after, it is no gainsaying that Elung Paul has lived up to the billing of his challenging job. During a ceremony to install newly appointed officials of the company recently, he prescribed hard work, frank collaboration, moral probity, abnegation and transparency for all the workers, as a means towards attaining the desired performance and results for the company. He urged workers to imbibe a renewed spirit of efficiency, a high sense of state, and primacy of the general interest as their guiding principles at work.
Appointed GM at a period marked by a steady upsurge in CSPH’s recurrent budget owing to rising prices of petroleum products on the world market, Mr. Elung has used his tested and very stringent policies as a typical finance conservative to cut down the company’s spending, with an attendant boost in the company’s coffers and savings. Workers of the company have noted that this only signals a good start for the GM.
With its main mission being to ensure a constancy in the supply of petroleum products on the home market and more strategically, ensure stability of the pomp prices of these products no matter their world market prices, it thus requires that the coffers of the CSPH remain healthy at all times, to enable the company to effectively carry out this very sensitive mission.
It should be mentioned that the CSPH is not the first strategic and challenging portfolio that Elung Paul (he is a Harvard Scholar and Senior Public Accountant) is handling. He was the first ever General Manager of the Treasury, Finance and Monetary cooperation of the Ministry of Finance, a former Director of the Treasury of Cameroon, Auditor of the Bank of Central African States, BEAC and former commissioner of the Banking Commission of Central Africa, COBAC. He also earlier served as Pay Master General (TPG) successively of the Northwest and Southwest regions. Even before his appointment as GM of CSPH, Mr. Elung Paul was tipped to be the pioneer Board Chair of the new SMEs Bank that was since announced to go operational in the country.
Yet, despite his very laudable first year at the CSPH, Elung Paul has remained true to himself: Very discreet and completely cut-off from the public eye. A reporter colleague once observed that Mr. Elung is no different from President Paul Biya who appointed him; you don’t see him any where and you don’t hear him any where. The colleague went on to conclude that Mr. Elung has become somewhat of an enigma, very unlike most other GMs of big Para-statals in the country.
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