Deadlock in finance ministry!

•        Tribalism, corruption skyrocket

•        Minister delegate sidelined

•        Scores-settling thrives

•        Suspended officials vow to sabotage minister

•        Unpaid contractors plan violent protest

•        Civil servants’ August salaries in doubt

•        Beti ministers swear Alamine must go

By Ngah Christian Mbipgo in Yaounde

If anything, the ministry of finance (MINFI) is in administrative limbo. Inside sources have told The Guardian Post that the minister, Alamine Ousmane Mey, exhibits regrettable tribal tendencies and untold general amateurism which infuriate workers in no small measure, thereby stalling the progress of work in MINFI.

“Alamine’s appointment was greeted with euphoria and he actually started off well as he came up with a number of brilliant policies soon after he was appointed,” a source in the department of budget who asked not to be named revealed to us. “But after sometime, perhaps out of excitement and bad faith, he began making a series of controversial decisions which have only helped to mar the work we are doing here.”

Tribalism rears ugly head

Our source said that in typical Cameroonian fashion, the finance minister has dropped many senior MINFI officials from the strategic positions they were holding and appointed his “brothers” from the Far North to replace them. To exemplify, he explained that most controllers who were appointed by a recent ministerial decision were from that part of the country.

The reason, he went on, was to reduce the influence of the minister delegate in MINFI in charge of budget, Pierre Titi, to whom the replaced workers and others who had earlier been dropped, such as the former director general of budget and the budget preparation head, were very faithful.

Titi Pierre: A threat

“Alamine is not comfortable with the fact that Pierre Titi has a lot of in-house experience since he has served as minister delegate for long, that is, since he left ENAM. He does not also feel at ease with some old hands in the house who are pro-Pierre Titi. And so he has not failed to get rid of them and installed his own men in strategic positions.”

On account of this act of tribalism, we were further informed, different cliques have cropped up in the house, consisting mainly of those who are for the minister, others who support the minister delegate and yet others who belong to neither of the two camps. Evidently, they are more concerned with working for the destruction of one another than for the common good of MINFI.

Scores-settling thrives

This is closely linked to the issue of scores-settling which is reportedly another unfortunate occurrence noticeable in Alamine Ousmane’s administration. One of those said to be a principal promoter of this ill is the secretary-general of MINFI, Jerome Ebang, who was appointed to that position by the head of state thanks to a recommendation from the minister. Being a former sub-director in that ministry, Ebang, we learned, was maltreated by some of the big shots there. Now that he has risen in rank, he is reported to be paying back the former in their own coins.  

Corruption prevails, strike threatened

Owing to the state of affairs described above, work in MINFI has been described as ineffective and disorganized to the extent that Alamine Ousmane Mey is unable to pay the duly earned money of those with special pay vouchers usually bearing huge sums of money as well as contractors who have rendered one service or the other to the ministry.

For the former set of people to cash their vouchers, The Guardian Post was told, they are obliged to pass through shady networks that have been created by MINFI workers who hold that Alamine is blocking their chances of ‘’chopping’’ or  making extra money

The situation is not the same for unpaid contractors who, we were further told, are bracing up for a violent strike action anytime soon.

Take, for instance, the case of newspapers which published the list of authorized microfinance institutions in the country since some 12 months ago. The amount owed concerned news organs is just 2.5 MFCFA each; which the minister has refused to pay, despite the fact that he placed a command for the publication. It is understood that newspaper managers served the finance minister a letter yesterday in which he was informed that they and their entire staff from across the country will stage a sit-in at his residence as from August 28, 2013.

 The letter which is copied the presidency, the prime minister’s office, the National Communication Council, the minister of labour and social security as well as all diplomatic missions in the country further states that the newspaper managers and their staff will move their strike action to the PM’s office and later to the presidency if their demands are not met after the three-day protest at the finance minister’s residence.

To further buttress the minister’s efforts to kill the private press in Cameroon, newspaper managers are not only cursing him for refusing to allow them publish the 2013 finance law but also for blocking the payment of newspaper bills that are forwarded to the ministry of finance for payment by even  other ministers. Already, there is increasing suspicion among newspaper managers that Alamine Mey is praying for a scenario whereby any violent protest by media houses owed by his ministry could degenerate into the 2008- type nationwide riots that almost swept away the Biya regime.

August salaries uncertain

The minister’s alleged amateurism and excesses have reportedly led to the general disillusionment of workers at MINFI many of whom are no longer enthusiastic about their official duty. This, in no small way, has contributed to the ineffectiveness and disorganization of work in the ministry.

“The majority of workers here have lost the motivation to work, and so work is coming on very slowly in this ministry. I won’t be surprised if the payment of civil servants’ salaries for the month of August delays unusually,” a worker at the minister’s cabinet told The Guardian Post.    

Beti ministers vow to eject Alamine

Even more disgruntled, we further learned, are ministers from the Centre and South regions who complain bitterly that Minister Alamine does not only block most of their budgetary lines in his ministry but also tries to make it the property of Northerners. A sister newspaper, quoting a Beti minister recently, said:

“Let Alamine not think that he will continue with his folly for years. He is just being crazy and we will put an end to his craziness. Over our dead bodies will he survive the next cabinet shake-up. Let him go back to the bank he was heading; the ministry of finance is too big and complex for him.”