We should be ambassadors of excellence

Finance Minister AlamineOusmaneMey has presented his

blue-print for excellence in the public finance sector

- AlamineOusmaneMey, Minister of Finance

For the man at the centre of Cameroon’s public finance sector, AlamineOusmaneMey exudes an eerie calm and confidence. As the Minister of Finance he oversees the smooth functioning of all the strategic departments that combine to make the ministry the power-house of the state. During a two-day meeting of officials of internal and external services of the ministry last week, Minister AlamineMey presented his blue-print for the various departments and posited that if the guidelines are respected to the letter, they would afford a veritable panacea for some of the problems faced. He explained these guidelines later in an interview he granted CRTV’s Cameroon Calling. Here are excerpts!

Mr. Minister, last week, the annual conference of personnel of the central and external services of your ministry was held in Yaounde; what was the objective of that high-level gathering?

Personnel of the ministry of finance came together to reflect on the role of the ministry as the accelerator of Cameroon move towards becoming an emergent country and also marching towards the path of administrative excellence. The theme of the workshop was derived from the end-of-year message of the Head of State, President Paul Biya to the nation; in which he challenged the administration to be more efficient, productive and contributive in making our country an emergent one by 2035. He drew a kind of action plan and pointed out what could be of importance in the administration as far as the public service is concerned. This is exactly what we did and that was the substance of our discussions. The outcome was very simple; we came out with a strong commitment to make our administration part of the solutions of the problems we are facing. The solutions are based on both the aptitude as well as the attitude of the public servant. This is important because when we think of the business climate or business environment, it is all about attitude; and this has been done in terms of analysis and diagnosis with the input of civil servants, the private sector and civil society. All these stakeholders have come together to analyze what the problems are and proffer solutions at the end of the day. We want to be ambassadors of excellence, we want to deliver quality service, and we want to ensure that our role as the ministry of finance should boost the emergence of our country by 2035. These are some of the areas that will be implemented in terms of our action plan. And we finalized our conference by saying that: Yes we can reflect on; yes we can draw a plan but most importantly, it’s about working hard to implement all these decisions and recommendations. This is where Cameroonians are waiting for us to make the needed change. This is where the expectations are high to see how we really put in place an administration which is a reference; an administration that will be a catalyst for development because we are looking for emergence by 2035.

We would imagine specific instructions were given to the various departments under your ministry?

Definitely, each department has a kind of focus. For the taxation department and the customs administration, we want them to optimize the mobilization of resources through the extension and expansion of our tax base, through simplification, modernization and facilitation of procedures, through improving on our business climate. This will help business activities take place, develop and generate wealth as well as jobs. If you generate wealth, you’ll be able to pay taxes and this is how our budget will receive resources that are needed to take care of expenditure. This is what we are expecting from the taxation department as well as the custom administration. We want to simplify and dematerialize procedures; we want to take our administration from the level at which it is today to a more modernized one. We want to protect our economic environment. This is about the taxation and customs departments. 

Talking about the department of budget, we do believe that quality expenditure is key. We have been able to implement the programme budget so far, we want to master it, we want to really appropriate this new tool and we want to make sure these expenditures we are having are of quality and are serving the development of our nation. This should continue in the budgetary department in terms of strategic planning, budget programming and execution. We have three years of implementing the programme budget. It is not enough. We have to take a step further; we really have to extend it to all the different levels of administration and make sure that it is going to change our paradigm for a long term.

For the treasury department, as you know, when you pay in due time, you make operators happy and their activities will also benefit from that. We have been making a lot of progress in that area; we should continue to really pay duly and timely, all the expenditures that the state is incurring and we do believe that if we do it, it will be more than contributive to the development of our nation.

Globally, we want to make our administration rethink the way it is functioning, rethink the way it is delivering service, rethink the way we are really contributing to Cameroon marching towards emergence in 2035. This will be followed up properly by the ministry, by the minister and the secretary general, such that management should be focused on results. Management should make sure follow up is ensured, management should make sure that the best people are also rewarded while those who are lagging behind be called upon to improve on their services. This is the global trend we are implementing. I will like to recall that we are striving to be a model and reference of administrative excellence. This is possible because we are determined and we have people who are willing to do so. And we are very happy to say that in the near future, you’ll see the change.

You mentioned dematerialization and we remember that in September 2015, you signed an agreement with the Koreans to put in place an E-clearance procedure; where are we with this today?

You are referring to something which is very important, very dear to us. Governance should definitely change in our environment; to move from hard documents to soft documents in our activities. This is going to simplify, secure, and facilitate our operations. We have gone so far in making sure that almost forty procedures are half dematerialized. It’s half the way gone and we have to go a step further to cover the rest because when we get to a fully dematerialized system, we’ll make our activities easy, fast, efficient and will support the growth of businesses in our environment. We hope to start very fast with the Korean corporation to take a step further in our dematerialization process. E-clearance will be a reality in Cameroon in the months to come. We have made a strong commitment in the taxation as well as customs departments to dematerialize our procedures. It is something that is going on and we’ll speed up the process so that Cameroonians, business people and all those who are in contact with this administration should not use paper or all the other traditional ways of doing business to get to this administration. They can do it from their homes and offices and this is where we think a modern administration should go.

You did indicate that you are counting on the staff of your ministry to render effective and efficient services but some people would say it’s an uphill task given that in the ministry of finance, the general impression people have is that your staff sit on files and wait for kick-backs before the files are processed. There is this other problem that you have; there are so many officials who are due retirement but who are still there working for their personal benefits and not for the general interest?

We are determined to solve problems encountered in our department but it is our duty and we will do it progressively, for sure. Know that the most important asset of every organization is its human resources. We want to beg on young talented Cameroonians within this administration who are equipped both in aptitude and attitude, to be professional in delivering the services. But it’s also good to add on in terms of attitude, quality service and also meeting the expectations of ethics and governance. It is a challenge for all the nations in the world. We do have to work constantly to fight against all these ills that are impediments to our development. The ministry of finance will do its own homework and we want to see that those who have reached the retirement age, have done a lot for the nation and have done quite well, should definitely leave the place for those they have trained to take over. And we shall make sure that in our ministry, all those who are capable of taking over will take and continue to do the job as has been done so far and deliver the quality services expected by the population. Governance is key in our environment; professional and competent delivery of services is also essential. We want to combine ethics, governance as well as professionalism in offering our services. We are entrusted with the fight against corruption which will never end; it’s a permanent fight. We are determined to do our part of the job as part of the nation. Well of course we manage a lot of money, we deal permanently with money but this does not give us any reason, any right to behave in a way which is not proper. We have to be an administration of excellence. I want to recall that we want to be ambassadors of excellence, good governance and ethics. This is what came out of our annual conference and I believe that our commitment and dedication; our boldness in addressing these issues will be seen and experimented by the population in the days to come.

You have made a lot of reference to the notion of digitization. Is there any possibility that within your ministry and perhaps in other government departments, we have people who are standing on the way of this digitization effort because this is a reform that effectively fights corruption? Are there some corrupt officials whom you have indentified who might be standing on the way?

 I don’t think this is the main problem. I do believe that reform is not optional. It is something compulsory for the development of our nation and whoever is not part of this process is going to be set aside and the reform will take place because this is the common interest of our nation. This is the commitment to make our government more efficient. This is the commitment to make our administration very supportive to those who come for services. We know that wherever any change takes place, there is some resistance. It is quite normal and natural. We are human beings but the advantages of this reform should plead for the proper execution of the reform because at the end of the day, the fruits we get from that are more than what we have today. And this is what we are trying to sell to our collaborators; to see digitization as an opportunity and not as a threat; digitization as something that will help us improve on our productivity and efficiency. Our ministry is an essential administration in any nation; we have to make sure this administration is well-equipped, modern, capable of delivering quality service, making sure that we are really part of the solution towards becoming an emergent country by 2035.

When the managing director of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, was here, she raised objection to the notion of tax and customs exemptions, but we know that the government has opted to exempt certain companies that are likely to create jobs from paying taxes for certain periods. Was she wrong?

 No, she was not wrong. You should put her observation in context. We have decided since 2015 to promote private sector investment in our environment. This is important and we have to address these incentives through administrative and tax incentives. We want to believe that it is a process and our country is poised to ensure that we attract more foreign direct investment as well as generate local investment in our economy. To do so, you need to select those incentives you want to give to investors and this is where optimization is important. And whoever gives us an advice on how to optimize, we listen carefully and take this into consideration and try to implement but this does not mean that we should not give incentive to companies. We should do so for companies that need incentives because they are creating wealth, jobs, and they are supporting the development of the country and it should be done with proper evaluation. This is where we also should make the difference. Once you have received a bulk of incentives, you should be able to demonstrate that the economy receives back any contribution from your company; wealth creation, job creation and so on and so forth. This is what we see as the message given by the managing director of the IMF. It is an advice because we want to believe that those international institutions that work with us are also interested in seeing our economy generate strong and inclusive growth as well as maintain a very strong development process.

Closely linked, is this economic partnership agreement that Cameroon has signed up to with the European Union; this means that we are going to be getting goods imported into Cameroon customs-free. How much are we going to lose in terms of customs revenue?

 I will look at it as an opportunity. What do we do to take advantage of this partnership agreement? I will rather reflect in this direction; instead of asking what we lose. We should not forget that the world is changing and one thing that is constant is that we are going global. We are opening up and money, people and goods will have to move freely in the world. So how do we take advantage of this new situation? Instead of creating barriers, we should develop capacities to export, to produce, to serve the global economy and we are doing it at the level of the government through proper preparation of companies; improving on their competitiveness such that they can compete with the rest of the world. Of course, we have to go through a tough period of time. Adjusting yourself requires some measures to be taken and the state is prepared to fully support companies which are concerned with this new situation. But in general, let us see this partnership agreement and all these opportunities as something we should take advantage of rather than looking at it as a threat that will jeopardize our development. I think Cameroonians are very innovative; our economy is diversified and very resilient as our head of state mentioned. Therefore we should look into the future with commitment, and strong confidence because we are capable of facing all these challenges.

Why didn’t we start probably by making sure that we have the free flow of goods and services within the CEMAC zone? Trade here consists only of about three percent. Why do we first go to the European Union when we have not strengthened trade ties with our neighbours?

We should not forget that trade is first of all based on what you produce and what you sell. Our trade with the rest of the world was mainly based on commodities and we are producer and exporter of commodities. This is how our trade started with this part of the world you are referring to. This notwithstanding, we have realized that to maintain our resilience, we should strengthen sub-regional trade. This is where we should address the issues of infrastructure, roads, the free movement of people and goods such that even if at international level, we are weak in terms of market perspectives, we should be able to replace it with sub-regional trade and this is what we are doing. Despite this weakness you are pointing out now, the political commitment and the will to develop sub-regional infrastructure and promote sub-regional trade is strong and will help address this question in the very near future.

Mr Minister, the 2016 conference of the ministry of finance came at a time when the war against terrorism is affecting particularly the customs administration. What place was given to insecurity during the conference?

Remember the head of state mentioned that terrorism is a global threat; it is a global issue, so it needs global solutions. Therefore security will always be part of our agenda. And talking about customs, we have definitely, during last year, suffered the effects of insecurity in certain parts of our country. Some of our infrastructure was destroyed and this has hampered our capacity to develop our services. This notwithstanding, we have redeployed our activities such that we were able to come close to the target in terms of revenue collection which is about 98 percent and in terms of protection of our economic space. These are the missions of our taxation department and our customs administration. And we want to believe that all the measures taken by the head of state in terms of security will contribute to bring back stabilities to areas where our activities were probably disturbed. We want to see that progressively, we are coming back to normality and that progressively, we are also introducing ways of redeploying our activities such that it’s not only at the frontiers that our activities in terms of customs will take place. Surveillance on the national territory, following up transit activities, monitoring risks; these are instruments that will help our customs administration to maintain its performance in terms of revenue collection, as well as economic protection with respect to activities in our environment.

When you were installing the director general of customs recently, you specifically asked him to fast track the installation of customs infrastructure at the Kribi deep sea port. Have you done some projection on what Cameroonians stand to gain from customs activities in that port? Secondly, on this question of clogging at the Douala port; we have information that you have been able to install some scanners there. Can you shed more light on that?

The prospects on the Kribi deep sea port are very bright if you think of the capacity of vessels that will anchor at this deep sea port. That a deep sea is constructed in Kribi does not mean activities at the Douala port will cease and we want to believe that two of the major problems we were facing are being addressed. Of course we had a very slow process of taking out goods from the Douala port but that has been solved because of solutions implemented to release and speed up the process of bringing out containers from this port. We also want to believe that security and risk management is also important and one shortcoming that was highlighted was the presence of only one scanner. We are going to have at least four scanners in the weeks to come. This will improve the management of risk in this area and improve the speed of withdrawing containers at the Douala port, and we’ll seek for solutions that will address each border entry because we should not just look at the Douala port, but also all the entries so as to secure the way people and goods are coming into our country.

When you look at the challenges and expectations the ministry of finance is expected to meet this year, how optimistic or pessimistic are you?

I do believe that we have very good reasons to continue to be optimistic. Remember the address of the head of state on 31st December 2015; he clearly mentioned that despite the unfavorable situation, our country has demonstrated resilience, which is to say despite all the unfavorable factors that have impacted the world economy, we have been able to get to 6 percent growth, we have been able to meet a majority of our objectives and we should continue to do so. This is where I want to say I remain very optimistic because we have human resources so committed, dedicated and willing to change the shape of our nation. These people are the reason why we are optimistic. Secondly, we have the potential in different sectors of activities. We want to believe that putting together institutional organization, economic potential, quality human resources, and the lion’s fighting spirit we have, we’ll be able to continue to march resolutely towards becoming an emergent country by 2035. We believe that one has a better journey when one is optimistic rather than pessimistic.