A seminar on new budget planning and implementation requirements held last Friday at Soa.

Officials of the University of Yaounde II, Soa, last Friday February 3 in the campus held a one-day seminar on planning a programme budget. Organised by the university, the seminar was aimed at upgrading the management skills of vote holders, finance directors and all those involved in the budget implementation chain in the university.

The Rector, Prof. Jean Tabi Manga, explained that the seminar was organised to enable stakeholders better prepare for the forthcoming University Board meeting at which this year’s budget will be studied for possible approval. He said the novelty this year is that it is a programme budget that has to present planned activities, monitoring indicators, detailed implementation schedule, expected outcomes, etc, unlike in the past when emphasis was on raising resources without clear ideas on what to use them for.

The seminar, Prof. Jean Tabi Manga said, was therefore timely as it would enable university officials to share experiences and together plan the activities to be included in the 2012 budget. All this in line with the Ministry of Finance’s directives on the implementation of the 2012 State budget.

The Financial Controller of the University of Yaounde II, Soa, and main facilitator of the seminar, Elias Fon Mokom, said the holding of the seminar was informed by the university management’s discovery that some officials took many things for granted. “Managing the budget is still a problem to some people and the wrong impression must not be given that State funds can be managed just any how. There is therefore need to remind them of the rules,” the facilitator pointed out.