Towards emergence in 2035

Authored by Léopold Diné Ele Aitkins

Pioneer book on treasury management launched
After launching the trail-blazing book in Yaounde a few weeks ago, the author and his publishers organized another launch at the headquarters of GICAM in the economic capital, Douala, on Wednesday, 26 February 2015.
By Mercy Neba in Douala
The event of the season in Douala last week was the launch at the GICAM headquarters of the maiden book on Cameroon’s treasury titled “Cameroun: La Gestion de la Tresorerie de l’etat , 1960-2014. Evolution, Bilan et Perspective pour l’emergence a l’horizon 2035.” (Cameroon: Management of State Treasury, 1960 to 2014. Evolution, Balance Sheet and Perspective for Emergence by 2035). After the groundbreaking book was presented to the Yaounde public a few weeks ago, it was taken to the enterprising populations of Douala on Wednesday, 26 February 2015. The headquarters of GICAM provided a commodious venue for the book launch, which saw the participation of economic policy makers, treasurers, public and private accounting experts, finance engineers, tax inspectors, business operators, politicians and a battery of curious journalists.
    Authored by Léopold Diné Ele Aitkins, Treasury Inspector and “Fondé de pouvoir” at the Yaounde General Treasury, and prefaced by Ariel M. Ngnitedem (PhD), the work, according to the latter, has come to “break the silence” because “money does not make noise.”

    “Diné Ele’s essay opens the debate on the management of Cameroon’s treasury. It enables the reader to go through the paths of tribulations, evolutions and changes which have occurred in the management of the treasury from the colonial regime to the new financial regime of the state that came into force in 2013,” Dr. Ngnitedem remarked, noting that the book is published on the heels of the transition from the old system of budgeting by means to the current system of budgeting by programs.
    “To say the least, Cameroun: La Gestion de la Tresorie de l’etat, 1960-2014 is a work that is unlike others. Indeed, it is the first time that such a published work is put at the disposal of the finance public,” Dr. Ngnitedem observed further.
    According to literary critic Louis Hervé Ngafomo, the work dissects the functioning and management of the treasury from 1960, Cameroon’s year of Independence, to 2014 and finally portrays the function of this management as the compass of good governance.
    Beyond the descriptive work, the author traces the paths to be followed and suggests policies to be adopted in order to make optimal the management of the state treasury.
    Commentators at the launch were unanimous that Diné Ele’s book unveils the main problems faced by the treasury institution in Cameroon since the colonial period. It also proposes possible solutions to these problems. 
    Some of these solutions include the effective closure of all public accounts in commercial banks, the suppression of expenditures to be regularised, the fixing of a regulatory deadline for payments, the encouragement of payments by bank transfers in preference to cash payments etc.
    As participants left the GICAM headquarters many expressed the hope that Leopold Dine Ele Aitkin’s book will serve as a veritable panacea for the many problems encountered by treasurers and public accountants as they go about their very exacting tasks.