National Assembly:

Budget session opens without draft finance lawThe third and last ordinary session of the National Assembly for the 2015 legislative year opened on Thursday 12 November 2015 with House speaker Cavaye Yeguie Djibril calling on MPs to renew their support to President Paul Biya in his efforts to combat Boko Haram.
    Attended by government ministers led by Prime Minister Philemon Yang, the solemn opening session was marked by the absence in the hemicycle of at least 2/3 of the 180 MPs.
    Even though no explanation was given for the absence, it emerged that most of the MPs of the ruling CPDM party had remained in their constituencies to either supervise or run in elections into the basic organs of the party.   
    After the brief session, MPs of opposition parties complained that the session was starting even when the draft finance bill had not been submitted in parliament as required by the law.
    It should be noted that law no 2207/006 of 26 December 2007 bearing on the finance regime of the state, mentions clearly in its section 39(1) that “the draft finance law for the year, including the annexes previewed in section 36 shall be deposited in the bureau of parliament latest 15 days to the start of the session.”
    Unfortunately this has not happened. The government has therefore violated the law again and for the umpteenth time.
    Apart from the draft finance law, government is also supposed to submit a report on the execution of the previous budget for the appreciation of the MPs. The law states that this should be done latest the 30th of September each year. But the government has also failed to do this.

    Observers are therefore wondering how thoroughly the MPs will examine the proposed finance law before voting it given that it would be submitted late. The report on the execution of the previous budget is supposed to help the MPs in knowing what amendments to make before adopting the new budget. This will certainly not be the case. Usually the budget is voted without any amendments. At times in the course of the examination by the MPs, the government realizes she omitted or imputed something in excess and calls for an amendment.
    It should be recalled that in years past, the government has almost always tabled the finance law in parliament late; at times barely one week to the close of the session. And surprisingly the law has always been passed without much ado by the MPs.
    In Cameroon, though the legislature is a separate power by virtue of the constitution, events and time have proven that the executive power lords it over the legislative and even the judiciary powers. Proof of this is that the president of the republic is not answerable to the parliament; he can even dissolve the parliament if he deems it necessary and when situations so warrant; the president also hand-picks the president of the National Assembly and the Senate. This obliges these personalities and the institutions they head to always pay allegiance and so appear condescending to the head of state.
    Apart from the finance bill, parliament is also expected to look into other hot dossiers concerning the livelihood of Cameroonians. MPs will certainly ask to know from government why pump prices of petroleum products are still high in spite of a considerable drop on the world market. It should be noted that the price of a barrel of oil has dropped to about 40 US Dollars on the world market down from about 100 dollars previously. Transporters have threatened a nationwide strike if the pump prices are not curtailed.
    Another commodity is cement. The price of this product is still high on the market in spite of an increase in the number of companies producing the good. Formerly Cimencam was the sole producer of cement; but we now have Dangote from Nigeria and a Turkish company.
There is also the slow pace of execution of big investment projects notably the Mekin and Memvele dams, the Limbe shipyard, the Y’de-Douala and Y’de-Nsimalen airport express ways, the Kumba-Mamfe road etc.