The kicker was given in most, if not all, the regions yesterday against a backdrop of ensuring efficiency to give sustainable development a chance. It is now operational. The 2012 State budget has been given an official kick-off and vote holders are now full drawn to strive for efficient management of the money allocated to them in the overall package of FCFA 2,800 billion. In Yaounde like in other regional headquarters, vote holders of the Centre Region turned up en masse at the City Council Hall for the launching in a ceremony chaired by the Governor of the Centre Region, Roger Moïse Eyene Nlom.

It emerged from the ceremony that the Centre Region will in the current fiscal year, among others, run an investment budget of over FCFA 16.3 billion. The amount, vote holders said, could witness an increase in course of the year, given that certain projects are often approved later.  As for the running budget, the region has been given over FCFA 7.4 billion for the first semester. According to the Centre Regional Finance Controller, Nkoa Joseph, the running budget is given in semesters (twice per year) but that of investment is given once. This means another FCFA 7.4 billion running cost would be allocated for the second semester. Although the vote holders were still to visit the catalogue of projects (Journal des projets) to have a precise idea on the priority projects, Mr Nkoa said focus will certainly be on infrastructure and the production sectors as announced by the Head of State in his end-of-year address to the nation on December 31, 2011. Water and energy whose supplies have been everything but consistent in the region, Mr Nkoa said, will be given consideration in the budget likewise education, health, road infrastructure, et al.

Like the Regional Finance Controller, the Governor, Mr Eyene Nlom, who presided at the ceremony said available statistics show that the rate of execution of the 2011 investment package of FCFA 16.6 billion stands at 80 per cent while that of the running budget is 85 per cent. “Don’t be surprise that this execution rate improves in the days ahead given that we have not yet received information from all the vote holders,” Mr Nkoa stressed. The Governor enjoined all the stakeholders to rise above perpetual speed brakes of efficient budgetary execution like late award of contracts, their not-so-good execution as well as fictitious ones to make true the Head of State’s wish of transforming Cameroon into a vast construction site within the 2035 vision of catapulting the economy to emergence.

Officials of the Ministry of Finance despatched to all the regions, explained to the vote holders the contours of the circular from the Minister of Finance which gives practical modalities for a harmonious execution, follow up and control of execution of the State budget.