Cameroon given deadline to comply with
CEMAC
Equatorial Guinea and Chad have been given
the same “ultimatum” while Gabon and Chad are far advanced in transposing the
CEMAC directives in their national texts.
By EssanEkoninyam in Yaounde
 |
| Biya |
In an interview with the press published
elsewhere in this newspaper, Cameroonian born Paul Tasong, the Commissioner in
charge of economic, financial and monetary issues of the CEMAC Commission, said
his working visit to Cameroon recently was not to give an ultimatum to the
government for failing to toe the CEMAC line. However, from what The Median gathered,
that was exactly the purpose of the visit of the financial expert.
Informed
sources told us that in a tête-à-tête he had with the minister of finance,
AlamineOusmaneMey, Paul Tasong made it clear that the government of Cameroon
would no longer be given the opportunity to delay its transposition of the
directives of the Economic Community of Central African States (CEMAC) in its
finance law. The CEMAC official said the union has given Cameroon up till the
end of this year to this sub-regional rule that was adopted by the six member
states on 19 December 2011.
The
said directives, it should be noted, are aimed on the one hand at promoting a
modern, efficient and transparent management of public finances, and on the
other, at improving the comparability of public finance data, with the aim of
better managing the procedure of multilateral surveillance on more reliable and
comparable data.
Critics
have wondered aloud why Cameroon is dragging its feet in transposing these
CEMAC directives in its finance law whereas it knows what benefit such an
action entails. It was on account of these advantages that AlamineOusmaneMey
said during the annual conference of the central and external services of his
ministry which held earlier this month that works on the transposition of the
CEMAC directives were far advanced and would be even more so in 2016.
Equatorial Guinea and Congo also
recalcitrant
This
newspaper has learned reliably that Cameroon is not alone in this feet-dragging
posture. Equatorial Guinea and Congo are in the same pot of soup. Reason why
the CEMAC control team headed by Paul Tasong visited these three countries to
sensitize them on the absolute need to transpose the CEMAC directives in their
various national texts.
The
Commissioner and his team began their tour in Equatorial Guinea on 10 February
2016 before proceeding to Congo five days later. Their visit in Cameroon ended
on Wednesday 24 February. In these three countries, we were reliably
informed,Tasong told the officials concerned that what CEMAC is asking of them
is not difficult to apply. All they need to apply it, he said, is a good dose
of political will as well as a reinforcement of the capacities of public
finance reforms.
Equatorial
Guinea and Togo, The Median learned, were also given the deadline of 31
December 2016 to conform to this sub-regional rule.
Enter Gabon and Chad
For
their part, Gabon and Chad are the only two countries that are manifesting a
keen interest in the whole issue. They are more advanced in the process than their
counterparts named above. In Gabon, for instance, two laws transposing two
directives have already been adopted and promulgated into law; one on the code
of transparency and good governance of public finances in January 2015 and the
other on the organic law pertaining to finance laws in May 2015. Three others,
The Median further learned, are only pending signature. All of them received a
prior okay from CEMAC.
As
for Chad, it adopted and promulgated the organic law pertaining to the laws of
finance on 18 February 2014. Also, a decree was signed on 1 April 2015 on the
general rule on public accounting while others have also been signed on the
budgetary nomenclature of the state and on the table of financial operations of
the state. Like those of Chad, all these laws first received the conform notice
of the CEMAC Commission. Meantime, more are in the pipeline.
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