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Cameroon |
CORRUPTION
The Prime minister is constantly trying to lay down norms
for the purchase
of government vehicles
Government cars, commonly called «CA»s in Cameroon, are back in the news again. The new shiny, arrogant and powerful vehicles of government functionaries are the wonder and admiration of the villages and the countryside. It is a sign of return to economic growth.
Considering their ever increasing number, their impressive size and particularly their allocation to government officials irrespective of rank, it is no wonder that the new CA registration vehicles are a source of argument among the public. So much so that some no longer hesitate to call into question the official line on the struggle against poverty, now considered to be a mere illusion. What is the use of a 4x4 to the head of a government service who works in the capital? Is it wise in a country struggling with structural adjustment, suffering from the consequences of an economic crisis, that a functionary should have at his disposal an impressive fleet of cars?
It is probably to put an end to this downward drift, that Peter Mafany Musonge, the Prime Minister, abandoned his reserve by issuing a decree stipulating the manner of acquiring of state vehicles and their classification in view of their allocation. «Rolling stock», writes the Prime Minister, «can only be acquired by state bodies because of the requirements of the service provided. Ministerial departments are bound, when they are preparing their budgets, to specify and to express clearly their needs in vehicles taking into account the mechanical state and the number of vehicles already in their fleet».
In July 2001, Mr Musonge had already sent a circular to members of government, insisting on the fact that government vehicles were increasingly attracting attention «while a government priority remains to allocate the fruits of improvement to the struggle against poverty which had accumulated during the long period of recession». And yet it was the same Prime Minister who in the National Assembly in June 2001, had defended a budget for public investment of 6.4 billion CFA francs for the purchase of vehicles for the functioning of the administration. This was 2.09% of the 307 billion CFA francs allocated to public investment, and 21.7% of the budget allocated to material equipment.
Other statistics: of the 50 ministerial and equivalent posts, only 22 openly claimed the full amount allocated to the acquisition of vehicles. Over 20 did not make a claim in their projected budget, and the remaining ten hid their budget for vehicles under various general headings like «special technical equipment», «other logistic means», «service equipment» etc.
Hit parade
In the euphoria of return to growth, some ministerial departments do not go in for subtleties.
The Pr Joseph Owina’s Ministry of National Education, grabbed the lions share with 1.34 billion CFA francs for the purchase of cars and motor cycles. This is 13 times the budget reserved for providing electricity for schools and more than double the amount allocated to building latrines and water supplies to primary schools. Meanwhile, several newly created educational establishments exist only on paper. Others, like the secondary school in Afan Loum (Central Province) share the buildings of the primary school. A classroom made of «definitively» provisional materials has been built.
In second place comes the Ministry of Public Health, with almost one billion CFA francs for vehicles. This is almost ten times the amount allocated to combat endemic diseases (100 million), against 5 million to combat AIDS, 400 million for an expanded program of vaccination and 75 million to combat river blindness.
In the third place comes National Security with 561 million CFA francs, or six times what has been allocated for the equipment of police stations (100 million) and the purchase of arms and munitions (100 million).
In fourth place comes the Ministry of Justice with 500 million for the acquisition of vehicles. Other ministries are a little more modest.
A choice to be made
The background to the size of these large amounts allocated for the purchase of vehicles goes back four years. In fact, in the context of carrying out the program of public investment, the Prime Minister in person ordered the administrators of different public services, to begin again to re-equip the state with rolling stock. It was a matter of «restoring to the Cameroon administration the means of functioning properly.» This reason is still being evoked today by the Ministry of Public Investment (which is in charge of arbitration in budgetary matters).
One of those responsible explains: «The budgets allotted for the purchase of vehicles this year, is due to the need to strengthen the ability of the administration to function properly. Imagine, for example, how the provincial officer of the Ministry of Fisheries and Animal Husbandry, who has to go out to oversee the work done, can do his job without a vehicle for his necessary journeys.» He continues: «The problem is not in the size of the budget but in the choice of the type of vehicle. Should one buy for the ministry a Vx costing 98 million rather than a large Vitara? Should the Director of Central Administration receive a Nissan Patrol or a double cabin Lzuzu. That is the question».
As far as the man in the street is concerned, is it permissible to invest such a large amount of money in vehicles while the country roads are not maintained as in urban areas? How can one spend 2% of public investment in the purchase of vehicles, while the Ministry of Scientific and Technical Research claims in vain, 1% of the national budget for research?
The purchase of large capacity cars uselessly, increases the life-style of the state and deprives the government of the necessary means to combat poverty in an effective manner. Some would prefer to reduce the life-style of the state in order to consolidate the gains of economic recovery.
Stricken head-on by the economic crisis in 1985, with national economic indicators dropping sharply into the red, Cameroon decided to roll up its sleeves. In fact the GNP had gone into free-fall: more than 20% down between 1988 and 1992. Hence the plan to reduce the life style of the State, particularly the almost complete annulment of the lease of houses for civil servants and the sale of more than 80% of state vehicles. Unfortunately these vehicles were sold «for a song» to their users through the complicity of some shady agents.
Today the purchase of large capacity cars because of the upturn in the national economy is, according to the periodical Mutations, an open door for double dealers. In its issue of 11 July 2001 it says: «Knowing the practices of our administration now, a gaping hole has been opened up for schemers in the public market. In this context, it will be remembered that the Minister Without Portfolio of the Ministry of Budgetary Control (at the time Lucy Gwan Messia), allowed the purchase of second-hand vehicles from a company run by her younger sister, rather than buying new ones.»
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