The Ministry of Finance on thurday January 13 in Yaounde under its Forestry Revenue Enhancement Programme, FREP launched a new project aimed at boosting logging revenue collection by checking the level of fraud that hitherto characterized the sector. The launch took place at Azur Hotel, Bastos at a workshop organized to sensitize stakeholders. Known as the Pilot Support Project for the Improvement of Collection and Monitoring of Logging Revenue in Cameroon, and supported by the European Union, EU and the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, FAO, the project is due to last 12 months.
“The old system proved to be ill adapted. We are now moving on to a new system that combines the former (traceability through hand-filled forms) and the new, computerized traceability. The new system ensures that once entered into the computer, the information can’t be tampered with; not even by the one who did the entry,” explains Ebia Ndongo Samuel, Director of Forestry in the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife. He goes further to explain that with such measures in place, the fraud that used to take place at the level of entering hand-written data on logging activities will be dealt with. The new traceability system begins from the level of carrying out inventory of trees in the forest and their entry into a computerized database.
“Those who enter the details will not have access to the information after. The felling of trees, transportation across the country to the seaport shall henceforth be strictly monitored through a central computerized system to ensure the conformity of the felled wood with current rules and regulations,” the Director warned. On the other hand, checks will also be made to see if logging companies have paid all their royalties, taxes and dues; failing which relevant government departments will immediately be informed to take action against them, he said. “There will be no more cases of felling more than the allocated number of trees as any such attempt will immediately set off an alarm on the central electronic monitoring system,” he concluded.
Ndouga Andre Jules, President of the STIEPFS logging and wood exporters union, described it as ensuring that people pay for the trees they fell, adding that under the former, logging companies could declare any quantity of trees felled without anyone being able to verify. He welcomed the new system, saying it would help the country comply with its own rules and regulations. “I expect state revenues to double under the new order as its system of traceability will keep track of all wood from the forest where it is felled, right to the port before it is exported. The system obliges us to comply with international standards in order to export our wood. Under the agreement with the EU, if you don’t pay, you can’t export,” the union leader explained.
The Coordinator of the project, Mrs Aboueum Isabelle, disclosed that before the recent world economic crunch, the country made between FCFA 20 and 25 billion annually as logging revenue. She said she was looking forward to an increase in revenue as there will be better collection, monitoring and evaluation of every step of the system. The project was signed on December 2, 2010 with the European Union under its ACP/FLEGT Programme.
