The state will
close all its engagements by November 30, 2012. What measures have been put in
place to ensure that all service providers are paid within the time limit?
I think that
your question is double fold; having a budgetary and treasury aspects. Talking
about the budgetary aspect since the closure of engagements falls within this
sphere, all has been put in place to ensure that transactions stop normally.
Service providers are quite aware of this date as well as vote holders. I don’t
think that it is our duty to take any measures, but instead those who have
services to offer to do so before this date.
The relationship
between the state and its service providers is suffering from several ills;
ranging from favouritism to anarchy. What analyses can you make of this
assertion?
The analyses I
will make about this assertion is that service providers are being misinformed.
I think it would be important that service providers get information from the
right source. We followed some finance experts who made alarming declarations
stating that the state accumulates arrears, which is of course false. The state
does all it can to make sure that all its debts are settled on time. That is
why of late, the minister of finance published all payments pending settlement
in all treasury accounting posts. This is to let it known to the concerned that
payments are made in a chronological order. When people are not aware of this
system, they often rush to the treasury and beg treasury agents and go into
similar procedures meanwhile they do not need all this. Anyone who has
undertaken any transaction with the state does not need to come to the
treasury. He simply waits for money in his account. Since the beginning of the
2012 fiscal year, we have made a duty to pay within 60 days maximum. The last publication in Cameroon Tribune at
the beginning of October indicated that expenses liquidated as of 31 August
have been okayed for payment. If my calculations are good, then we are talking
here of something about 46 days, far from the stipulated 60. We endeavour to
respect this dead line right to the end of the year.
There are
certain contractors who are complaining of having unpaid bills with the state.
How do you explain that?
I would like to
precise here that these are dossiers that did not follow the normal budgetary
procedure. They are thus not found within the treasury network. These are dossiers
of which budgetary finances were not available. Services to be offered are
often made based on the confirmations that indicate clearly that funds have
been disbursed for that service to be provided. They are people who however
carry out certain services based on placement orders. I think people need to
respect the prescribed procedures. At the regional level, service providers
must make sure that funds are authorized by the finance controllers and at the
level of the accountant, that budgetary funds are available before they can
undertake any service.
Some years back
the idea of regrouping these service providers was brought up in order to
facilitate debt recovery. Do you think that such a move is still necessary
today?
The respect of
payment deadlines is an obligation of the ministry of finance particularly the
general directorate of treasury. When we
fixe the deadline of 60 days, it happens at times that we pay before this
deadline. Service providers do not need to mount pressure on the state to pay their
bills because the state tries to be self discipline in order to respect its
commitment. In addition, the advantage we have is that the state has the
possibility of raising funds from the monetary market at very interesting
rates. Two weeks ago, we borrowed money from the monetary market at 1.7% which
shows how credible the state is. In the franc and CEMAC zones, Cameroon is the
only state in 2011 to have respected the four criteria of convergence amongst
which is the non accumulation of arrears. This information was confirmed during
the zone franc meeting that held in Paris on October3 and 4, 2011.
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