Corruption: Fight Will Intensify

President Paul Biya in his 2023 end-of-year message and the 2024 New Year message on December 31, 2023 to his compatriots cited a number of ongoing and soon-to-start projects whose effective implementation will meet the aspirations of the population. The implementation of the projects, he said, faces a major impediment which is inadequacy of the required financial resources.
While the government is striving to ensure the welfare of the citizens, there are some unscrupulous people who have and continue to milk the State of the scarce financial resources through the various acts of corruption.  Aware of this cankerworm, President Paul Biya stated emphatically that, “Actions implemented to combat corruption and misappropriation of public funds are essential for protecting public resources. They will be intensified in the coming year.”  This will be within the context of intensifying the implementation of the Head of State’s previous instructions to reduce the government recurrent expenditure in order to garner more financial resources for investment. 
Corruption and misappropriation of public funds have persisted in the country despite the institutions government has put in place, as well as the international instruments government has ratified. The National Anti-Corruption Commission (CONAC) through annual anti-corruption status reports has continued to expose cases of corruption in the country.  In the Cameroon’s 2022 Anti-corruption Status Report, the Chairperson of CONAC, Reverend Dr Dieudonne Massi Gams said, “In total on CONAC investigations on 2022, the financial loss suffered by the State of Cameroon as a result of acts of corruption and related offences amounts to FCFA 4, 623, 418, 918.”  The report states that, “it is a significant reduction compared to 2021 when it amounted to FCFA 43, 947, 794, 138.” Domains in which corruption is almost endemic concern “percentages” in payments and misappropriation of funds for pension and career-related arrears, as well as irregularities in the contract award process.
From every indication, government cannot succeed in the various projects and programmes intended to improve on the living conditions of the populations in case the scarce public resources are siphoned at different levels of the administration through acts of corruption and misappropriation.  The ambitious National Development Strategy (NDS) 2030 that will ultimately drive Cameroon to emergence targeted for 2035 can only effectively be implemented in a corruption-free environment.  The National Development Strategy among others has the objectives to establish favourable conditions for economic growth and accumulation of national wealth and to ensure that structural changes essential for industrialisation of the country are obtained and also to improve the living conditions of the populations.
Government’s ambition makes the intensification of the fight against corruption an imperative. All measures that range from preventi...