The third inter-ministerial committee session on assessing programmes, met in Yaounde on July 24, 2014.

Finance Minister, Alamine Ousmane Mey, says over midway gone into the full implementation of the result-based programme budget, field reports show that the theoretical part has been well assimilated and that efforts need to be stepped up for the practical part to yield fruits sought for by the reform.

The Minister was speaking in Yaounde yesterday July 24 while chairing the third inter-ministerial committee session for the evaluation of programmes contained in the budget. This was notably the 156 programmes contained in 2013 and 2014 Finance Laws. The session examined the path covered in the full implementation of the programme budget since January 1, 2013 so as to seek ways of consolidating achievements and re-directing policies for efficiency in the reforms.

Addressing the inter-committee committee members in the presence of scores of other cabinet members, Minister Alamine Ousmane Mey said the programme budget is a process launched since 2007 and which seeks a total change in the way public finances are managed.

“Today, we are able to draw some lessons about what has been done so far. We have made positive progress in implementing this reform in our country. It is not an easy task, it is a permanent process and we would like to equip those who are in charge of drafting the programmes in such a way that they are in full compliance with the expectation of our committee which is in charge of evaluating how well responsible people have prepared the programme budget for the administration,” he said.

He added that they have realized that the mastery of the programme budget concept at the theoretical level has been well attained. The implementation in the practical phase, the Minister added, still has to go down to council level and consolidated at the central level. “This requires more training.

It is about making our economy more resilient, attractive and in line with the expectations of the population. We have to ensure that our public finance shows a new face. We know that we have to use the tools available but our major focus is the quality of human resources in charge of carrying out these reforms,” Alamine Ousmane Mey noted.

2015, the Minister said, will mark the end of the first implementation of the programme budget (2013-2015) and it is high time all stakeholders draw lessons so as to improve the performance and harvest better fruits during the next phase (2016-2018).

Between July 24 and August 8, 2014, various ministries will filed past the inter-ministerial committee to share experiences on the results they have had so far, difficulties encountered and what could be done for collective success.