EDITORIAL

Scandals in public contracts execution: When MPs, senators go to equity with filthy hands

The pubic investment budget is the epic centre of national development. It is the crucial component of the annual budget used to provide basic amenities, equipment and infrastructure from classrooms to health centres; from rural electrification to roads, drinking water et al. The public investment budget popularly called BIP by its French acronym which is approved yearly by parliamentarians and senators has over the years been wreaked by scandals of corruption, embezzlement and outright fraud.

It is customarily to hear that the contract execution rates in divisions or regions are lagging behind targets. Contracts are poorly done but are paid for. Some are not even executed by the contractors and with the arrogant connivance of vote holders, full payment is made. Used equipment and vehicles are delivered as new. Contracts over five million francs are awarded without going through the tender boards.
President Biya even questioned in his last end of year speech why contracts are not all being executed. Excuses are easy to come by from the tender boards, contractors, vote holders, ministry of public contracts, ministry of economy and planning and the follow up committees. The “rains” are often held responsible, cunningly protecting the real cause which is corruption.
On paper, awarding contracts in Cameroon looks so transparent but behind the scenes are hidden tales of intrigues, black market transactions, corruption, embezzlement and overt theft of investment allocations involving civil servants who double as contractors and even dishonourable legislators.
In an interview with a local newspaper, the divisional delegate of the ministry of public contracts in Ndian division, Nkounto Christo complained that “everybody, members of parliament, senators, chiefs or economic operators want to be a contractor. The worst of it is that they are not contractors but middle men who take contracts and sell them to other contractors. They usually get contracts and sub-let them to other contractors and get their booty and go away. They have been trying to divert us from our objectives”, the delegate complained publicly.

In Bui, Prime Minister Yang’s home  division, 61 per cent of BIP projects totalling 1,2 billion francs for 2014 had been completed by October 9 which is not a good result considering that such contracts are expected to be completed by November 30.
The excuse Ntoi Eugene Nja, the divisional delegate of the ministry of economy planning and regional development, MINEPAT, gave include the late award of contracts, misdirected credits and late allocation of sites.

The problems are not limited to Bui, they are all over the country. In Mezam, Taklong Amos, the chairman of the follow up committee to ensure the proper execution of public contracts even doubted the financial capacity of some of the contractors. He said if they have the money for the contracts, they would be no delay or excuses in finishing the respective work on time.
Like the Ndian delegate complained, some of the jobs are awarded to influential middle people who then scout around to get contractors to do the jobs. There are those who delay just to manipulate officials to get paid for jobs not done.
An example is the criminal case in Muyuka where the mayor, Nkeng Michael divulged at a council session that his preceding council administration got money for a water project in the municipality and the money was all paid when work had not even started.

Still in the South West region, the new mayor of Alou in Lebialem found out on taking office that an old pick-up truck was supplied from the BIP budget and paid for as a new one. In the same council a caterpillar bought for 30 million was supplied for 150 million francs and the same rip-off repeated in Wabane council still in Lebialem.

Those are contracts that are supposed to pass through the filter of the tender boards of the ministry of public contracts and follow-ups made even by the senior divisional officers who are supervisory authorities of councils. Nobody cares.  But for the change in the various councils involved, no one would have opened the Pandora ’s Box which is not limited to the few scandals listed.
Even when some of these scandals get to the front burner and to CONAC or other investigators are called in, there are always the tendencies for the perpetrators in the contract scams to use some of the ill-gotten money to tempt investigators.

As the Ndian delegate has pointed out, some senators and parliamentarians are part of the mafia. How will the legislators “control government action” if they themselves camper behind tenders board officials begging for contracts which they dishonourably sell or even lobby to get payment for abandoned projects? In a country where unemployment sticks to high heaven, shouldn’t legislators and civil servants be banned from doing contracts?

Is the ministry of public contracts not overwhelmed by the number of jobs which leads to some of the delays in award of contracts, corruption, and delay to meet deadlines? With the transfer of resources to councils, why should each municipality not have its own tender board so that the council and local population can better monitor the award and execution of contracts?

With all these scandals of abandoned contracts, supply of used equipment as new and award of contracts above five million without tender, shouldn’t parliament set up a judiciary commission of enquiry to investigate some of the fraudulent practices and press for the prosecution of the culprits?

To do that effectively, shouldn’t legislators ban their colleagues from being contractors and just be honourable law makers?  Can a legislator worth the honour ascribed to that responsibility earn it by being a crook contractor?

For legislators to control government action which is in addition to debating and passing bills for promulgation into laws, they must be capable of ensuring that every franc spent from the public coffers to amelorate on the living standards of his or her constituents is judiciously used. In default, senators and parliamentarians should ensure that culprits face the excruciating axe of the law.