The National Assembly Parliamentary Group held a press conference in Yaounde on November 19, 2014.

The Social Democratic Front, SDF, has expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that the 2015 Finance Bill was not submitted to the National Assembly by October 20, 2014 according to the Law on Fiscal Regime voted in 2007.

Speaking yesterday, November 19, 2014, at the National Assembly in Ngoa-Ekelle, Yaounde, SDF National Assembly Parliamentary Group leader, Hon. Dr Banadzem Joseph Lukong and Vice President of the Finance and Budget Committee, Joshua Osih, said information on the mid-year review of the 2014 State Budget and Settlement Bill also ought to have been submitted by government by now.

“The Members of Parliament consequently cannot say that they are given the necessary time to do their work well. The 37 per cent execution rate of the Public Investment Budget (2014), down from 50 per cent last year, does not surprise us,” the MPs said in their statement.

They also alleged that the party’s efforts to improve the working of the House are often blocked by the Cameroon People’s Democratic Party, CPDM Parliamentary Group. They cited the case in 2013, when four Private Member’s Bills on the orientation of decentralisation, Electoral, Cameroon Nationality and Labour Codes, were not allowed to go through. Similarly, a draft resolution on the setting up of a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry on the acquisition of XIAN MAG 60 Chinese-manufactured aircraft for the national carrier, Camair-co, was not allowed to see the light of day.