A mission from the Central African Economic and Monetary Community met with officials of the Ministry of Finance on February 22, 2016.
The Commissioner of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, CEMAC, Paul Tasong, has hailed Cameroon for progress in aligning national legislation to directives of the body on public financial management. A mission from CEMAC met with officials of the Ministry of Finance in Yaounde yesterday, February 22, 2016, to assess Cameroon’s progress report on its adhering to CEMAC guidelines on the efficient management of public finances. The Minister Delegate to the Minister of Finance, Elung Paul Che, chaired the discussions.
CEMAC Commissioner acknowledged Cameroon’s strides in voting a law on the management of its public fiannces. Paul Tasong said the 2007 Law on Cameroon’s Financial Regime corresponds to CEMAC directives although they were put in place when Cameroon had voted the text. “So far, we are satisfied with work that is being done on the ground in terms of transcribing these directives as a whole into national legislation, » he said. This notwithstanding, the CEMAC commission, he explained was identifying lapses between Cameroon’s legislation and CEMAC directives with the hope of eventually getting the law modified to incorporate all key aspects.
He explained that it was an opportunity for Cameroon to amend texts that guide public private partnership in the country’s public finance. This is a missing link which acording to the CEMAC official is a guarantor of adherence of financial partners in Cameroon. “We have no doubt that Cameroon is on track and that by the deadline of 31st December 2017, all the directives will be operational in Cameroon in terms of national legislation, the CEMAC Commissioner stated.
Understanding CEMAC Directives
The six CEMAC directives are obligations on the harmonisation and modernisation of the management of public finances adopted on December 19, 2011. The six directives are in two categories- policy and political. The first one relates to governance and transparency in public finance management while the second relates to finance bills. The last four are technical, relating to public accounting, public finance nomenclature and state financial operations tables. The initial deadline for adhering to the directives was December 31, 2013.
The date was later changed to 2014 and now to December 31, 2017. Member countries of the community ; Cameroon, Gabon, the Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, the Republic of the Congo and Equatorial Guinea, have shown positive prospects in its quest to align to the directives.
