“CAA Plays The Role Of The State’s Public Accountant”

Concretely, what is the role of the Autonomous Sinking Fund in the financing of projects?
As part of project financing, the Autonomous Sinking Fund (CAA) is responsible among other things, for the disbursement of loan from donors and payment of debt. The yearly finance laws stipulate that in terms of expenditure on external resources, CAA plays the role of the State’s public accountant. Also, for the execution of projects and programmes, it ensures in relation with the Project Management Unit, all the operations related to the financing obtained by the State as well as to its decentralised entities. This concerns the management of counterpart funds, certain Public Investment Budget (PIB) and the external mobilisation of resources for the execution of projects and programmes of priority to the government. 
What is the institution’s project portfolio?
In 2021, CAA registered a total of 198 financing agreements relating to active projects divided into 13 sectors with 31 projects registered in the agricultural and forestry sector. This represents a total amount of FCFA 6,859.79 billion, that is FCFA 3,492.04 billion for multilaterals, FCFA 2,264.02 billion for bilaterals and FCFA 1,103.71 billion for commercial creditors. As of June 30, 2022, three more financing agreements were added to the existing 198, thus bringing the total portfolio of active projects to 201 financing agreements amounting to FCFA 7,056.6 billion. Disbursements made during the month of June 2022 amounted to FRCFA 58.7 billion, that is 65.9 per cent mobilised from external donors and 34.1 per cent from internal creditors. Cumulative disbursements made within the first semester of 2022 amounts to FCFA 806.8 billion, 63.8 per cent of which are external disbursements and 36.2 per cent of internal disbursements. 
How are payment procedures done and what are the sectors of activity concerned?
Firstly, it should be noted that the choices are rigorous and focused on development propriety. Moreso, in the pursuit of implementing the 2020-2030 National Development Strategy, all sectors of activity are concerned with the objective of carrying out the structural transformation of the Cameroonian economy by making changes in the productive, industrial, financial and administrative domains. Achieving the objectives of the 2020-2030 National Development Strategy requires the effective absorption of fund available from donors. The total disbursement balance is regularly updated by CAA as part of the monitoring of this absorption indicator. That said, the portfolio of projects at CAA concretely covers all sectors of activity: agriculture and livestock (15.66 per cent), energy and water (14.14 per cent), public works (12.63 per cent), public health (nine per cent), educational and vocational training (6.57 per cent) amongst others. 
To carry out project financing operations effectively and efficiently, there are important tools such as specific procedures of each donor. In addition, with the assistance of the World Bank, there exist a manual of simplified project management procedures developed to complement the payment software in CAA called SIGED. It should be noted that this manual of procedures is in line with the provisions of the circular letter of the Minister of Finance relating to the execution of finance laws, the monitoring and control of the execution of the State budget. 
The Autonomous Sinking...